Jay's Adventures in Unova
by Roccer
Summary: A young man, unwillingly defined by his troubling past. His first steps into a new world, with no one to turn to but himself. He'll make new friends and face old foes, all while trying to decide his own destiny. Join the adventure of Jay S. Williamson who lives for himself, his sister, and more. (Rated M for future chapters. Contains POKEPHILIA and massive Harem. Just so ya know.)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

[Jay]

Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…

Ugh…Five more minutes, mom…

Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…

What the hell? Is that…my alarm clock?

Lifting a fist, I slam it down onto the off switch of the oppressive mechanical menace that dares to rouse me from my slumber. "Stupid piece of shit, waking me up like that…" I mumble to myself as I sit up and shuffle my tired ass out of my room and towards the bathroom downstairs.

Letting out a drawn out yawn, I make my way down the stairs, passing by a poster that has the three Unova starters on it, of which I promptly ignore due to my tired mind screaming at me to get a cup of coffee. Moving past the open kitchen area, I pick up a jar of coffee powder and the coffee pot to make that cup of sweet, sweet elixir.

What? Don't judge. Coffee does wonders for you later on in the day, and tastes good while doing it.

Moving into the bathroom, it was immediately a mutual decision between myself and my sense of smell to get my teeth cleaned. Fuck, that smells bad. Morning breath always sucks, no matter how hard you try to ignore it.

Sauntering out of the bathroom, the smell of freshly brewed coffee immediately fills my nostrils, causing me to take a deep inhale of the sweet scent around me.

"Ah, that's the stuff." That smell never ceases to put a smile on my face and a spring in my step.

A few minutes later, I had a cup of coffee in my hand and two plates of bacon and eggs on the table. Walking up the stairs towards the bedroom of my sibling, I knock on the other door opposite to mine.

"Wake up, Sis! Breakfast isn't going to eat itself, you know."

"Yes, brother. I'll be there in a minute…" I sigh with a smile on my face. And she calls me lazy half the time…

Speaking of which, why did I even set the alarm clock to…7 in the morning? I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something here…

Shaking my head, I walk down the stairs towards the open kitchen area, once again passing by the poster on the wall. This time, I finally notice the small print underneath the poster, specifically the date of which the lucky graduates of Trainer's School, me and my sister included, receive their first life partner.

My eyes widen, finally coming to the realization that the early alarm clock was no accident at all. The realization of said situation hits me like a ton of bricks, causing my head to snap towards the clock above the television set.

"Hey sis! Get your ass off the bed and get ready! We've gotta get there in fifteen minutes!" I scream, wolfing down my plate of breakfast and gulping down my entire cup of coffee in one go.

The door to her room flings open, revealing a white-haired, much-taller than-me sister, rubbing her eyes groggily. "What is it, brother, what are we going to be late for?"

"Damn it, sis! Don't you remember!? The day we get our first Pokemon! The day we start our adventure! That's today!" That information was enough to get her to sprint her way past me and into the bathroom, a look of panic on her face as well.

"Then let us make haste, brother! We don't have a moment to lose!" As she gets ready, I quickly run into my room and slip on my normal attire, most notably my blue zip-up hoodie and my short pants. I then burst out of my bedroom door, carrying my bag of items and my Xtranceiver 2.0, now with the ability to translate Poke-speech.

As I run down the stairs, I notice my sister eating her breakfast in a panicky fashion, although she had already put on her white tank top and red scarf. As I toss her own bag of items towards its owner, she passes me my wallet in a similarly quick notion.

"Thank you, brother!" "No prob, sis." Amidst the chaos of an early morning rush, we afforded each other a smile towards the other.

Slipping on our respective bags, we rush out the door, making haste towards the lab of Nuvema Town's local professor, Professor Juniper. Of course, my sister gets a head start because I have to lock the door before we leave.

"So…do you…think that…the professor…will…still let… us choose?" My sister asks me in short, labored breaths, a panicked look still gracing her facial features.

"I'm sure…she won't…mind…" I reply between pants.

The professor didn't really mind, per se. It's just that…

"Of course I mind you two being late! And to think you two graduated with top honors! You should be ashamed of yourselves."

She REALLY minded us being late, so we got one last lecture for the road. Hooray for us…

"Looks like you two really fucked up this time, didn't you?" That familiar voice, always a source of annoyance and hate. Turning around, I quickly locate the sniveling little 14-year-old bitch of a source that the sound belonged to.

"Hello, Jimmy." The name was spoken through gritted teeth, dripping with enough venom to send Arceus himself to the fiery depths of hell. I swear, every time I talk to the guy, a small piece of me dies on the inside…

"Don't be like that, Jay. You know you appreciate my presence. A peasant like you should, after all." This piece of shit, unfortunately, was the only person to ever graduate along with me and my sister this year. Due to his rich-as-fuck family, he has Pokemon fit to challenge any Gym Leader already, stashed away in his belt. Hell, the only reason the little bitch got his Trainer's pass like we did was through cheating and bribery through amounts of cash I could only dream of getting.

"Well, you need to fuck off before I break your teeth." I glare daggers at him, my voice barely a whisper. Seeing this, my sister quickly pulls me back, away from the rich, snot-nosed brat. "Brother, calm down. He's just not worth the trouble…"

"That's right. Listen to your whore of a sister, Jay." Jimmy decides to rub my supposed weakness in my face, his unyielding smirk looking oh-so-punchable right this moment.

"Now, now, Jimmy. You have no need to insult your fellow students in such a manner. Some of us are excited to get their first Pokemon, after all." Professor Juniper cuts in, saving both our asses from the insult dispenser in front of us.

"Meh, whatever. We all know who got in because of skill, and who got in because of money flowing out the asses of their parents." I piped up, adding insult to injury.

My sister immediately bursts into fits of laughter. Even the usually serious Juniper gives a small smirk to my comment. Jimmy instantaneously goes red in the face, his smirk long gone and seething in rage at me, knowing I was completely right. If there's one thing money can't buy, it's the respect and friendship of others. Besides, taunting the moron was always something I was good at. I'm not a legal trainer for nothing, you know.

"Whatever! Let me just get my first Pokemon so I can get out of this lame-ass town." Jimmy tries to punch me in the face, but a quick step to the right sends his ass flying into the nearest shelf of books, toppling the entire thing over. Another thing that we picked up in Trainer's School: never pick a fight with a Pokemon, no matter what the size. It's either fight or flight, and Pokemon do the fighting, so we have to do the flying. Learning how to dodge is all part of the lessons.

"What? You think I'm just gonna stand there and take it?" I shrug, hands in the pockets of my hoodie. Jimmy says nothing, only takes one of the three Pokeballs from the table in the middle of the lab and runs off. "You're gonna regret this, Jay! You hear me!?" He screams, running out of the lab, shaking his fist at me and glaring daggers.

Unfortunately for him, he never noticed the rock in front of his right foot, tripping over it. After regaining his balance, he kicks the rock and continues running off. Meh, he totally deserved it.

I, of course, had to make a pun to further enjoy the moment. "Looks like his trip got off to a rocky start, am I right?"

If the professor wasn't laughing at my insult to Jimmy, she was laughing now. Her smirk quickly turned into full-on giggles of mirth. My sister, Yupia, was less than amused.

"Brother! You have ruined this moment for me with your jokes!" She angrily yelled at me. That's her, alright. Always the wet blanket of the group when it comes to puns. Her reactions to my jokes are always priceless, though.

"C'mon, sis. Can't yu-pi-a (you be a) good sport for once?" I egg her on, causing her rage to further increase. "Stop this tomfoolery at once, brother!" She conks me on the back of my head lightly, not enough to cause any real damage, but enough for me to feel it. "Heh, heh, ow…"

"His jokes really brother you, don't they?" Juniper chimes in, only adding to Yupia's misery. One other thing about the professor: She loves puns. That one small detail was the one that made working with her for all those years much, much easier on me. "Professor, not you too!" My sister cries in despair.

As funny as that moment was, it was time to get serious. "So professor, let's say we get to choosing, shall we?" I suggest, now pretty eager to get my starter. With my sister nodding in agreement, we turn our attention to the table that Jimmy had snatched a Pokeball off of.

"One of these Pokemon will be yours to keep, so choose wisely. Once you make a choice, you cannot change it. Understood?" We nod, of course, and she tosses the two remaining Pokeballs into the air, the small capsules opening up and revealing their contents: Tepig, the Fire-Type, and Oshawott, the Water-Type.

"You already know what these two can do. So, who will you choose to join you on your journey?" She asks us, a small smile gracing her face.

"Tepig shall be mine, then!" Yupia declares, grabbing the little Fire-Type and carrying it and its Pokeball, the Pokemon in question letting out a squeal of surprise in response.

That's my sister, always assertive when doing almost anything. Man, she's so cool…

"Well, the choice is obvious, isn't it? I guess I'm choosing Oshawott, then." I smile, pointing at the small sea otter Pokemon standing in front of me. "Me?" Her voice, sounding oddly feminine, does nothing to hide her shock and disbelief at my choice.

"No, I mean the other cute, white and blue-furred little Oshawott in the room." I joked, getting a few giggles from her and the professor. "From what I can tell already, you two are going to get along great." Juniper remarks. "She's never gotten along with any other Trainer as quickly as you before. I'm impressed."

"Water-ver do you mean, professor? It's not my fault she's already warming up to me like this." The pun doesn't go unnoticed by any of us, Yupia included. "Oh my god, Jay why!?" My sister groans in exasperation in contrast to my amused expression and Juniper's laughter. The Oshawott is also laughing too, clutching her sides in laughter. "Good one, Mister!" She manages to applaud me in between fits of giggles.

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week." I bow to the small audience laughing before me, my grin unwavering.

Juniper quickly recovers from her fits of laughter, returning from the humor to readdress the situation. "Now, about your Pokedex and Trainer's ID…"

(Lazy, lazy timeskip because I are far too lazy...)

"Stay safe and have a good time!" Juniper waves goodbye with a smile from the doors of the lab, me waving back to her in kind. My sister had already left, due to her impatience, but I had stayed behind to help the professor with her bookshelf that that bastard Jimmy had knocked over earlier. Honestly, she forgets the simplest of things sometimes…

I had told her that Jimmy had only him-shelf to blame, and her laughter indicated that I had struck gold once again. Puns, always there to save the day, no matter how dire the situation looks.

Once we were out of view and staring at the entrance to the path of Route 1, I turned to face my new friend. "Now that I think about it, I don't really know your name, kiddo." I turn to face her, the small Pokemon doing the same.

"The name's Jay. Nice to meet ya." I extend my hand in greeting towards her, her flipper-like appendage holding onto my hand. She smiles at me in reply, squeezing my hand harder as she starts to shake it.

What she wasn't expecting, however, was the farting sounds of a whoopee cushion to be heard the second she applied more pressure to the handshake, the sudden farting noises causing her to burst into full-on laughter.

"Heh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. Gets 'em every time." I chuckle, grinning to her reaction that I found extremely adorable for some reason. How the hell can something be that cute, anyways?

"I don't really have a name, Mister Jay. Unless you want to call me by my species name." She replies, the almost pleading look on her face just telling me that she wanted me to take the initiative and name her.

"Then, do you mind the name…Chell?" I ask after a long moment of brainstorming. She tilts her head, giving me a quizzical look. "Don't judge. Takes a guy some real effort to think up of a name like that, you know." I tried to defend my choice, but that contemplative look on her face means that she probably doesn't like it.

"Sounds good to me!" She quirkily replies.

Or…it could mean that she actually was considering that option. Huh.

"Alright then Chell, let us head onward! To adventure!" I holler, much to her amusement. "You got it, Mister Jay!" She giggles as I hoist her up onto my shoulder and proceed into the forest path up ahead, a smile on both our faces.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

[Jay]

"Geez, kiddo! Slow down, will ya?" I call after the little cute ball of energy ahead of me, unable to pry the growing smile off my face. Seeing her move around like this reminds me of when my dear sister was only 7.

Seriously though, how in the name of all creation can something be so heart-wrenchingly cute!? There has to be laws illegalizing that somewhere, because from what my brain's telling me, something that cute is physically impossible.

Paying my words no heed, Chell decides to continue her little exploration around the forest path. Fearful of her well-being, due to her inexperience in battle as she had mentioned earlier, I had decided to limit her sightseeing to the path and the surrounding clearing. She was slightly disappointed by my decision to do so, but she still listened.

The way she looks at everything with genuine interest, that childish sparkling in her eyes…In those eyes, I see innocence. And right now, I feel that innocence is what I need to protect. It's also kind of my duty to favor the well-being of my partners and tend to their needs as a Pokemon Trainer, so that's also another reason why I have to stay vigilant, staying alert for anything, living or otherwise, that may pose a threat.

However, seeing her stroll along with that endless well of curiosity never ceases to amaze and amuse, as evidenced by the nice, warm feeling I'm experiencing right now. I've only been around her for a few minutes, and already I'm feeling much happier than I was when I saw that bastard Jimmy. Her bubbly, cheerful personality really works like a pick-me-up.

"Mister Jay? Mister Jay~" Chell's mention of my name snaps me out of my little thinking space. "Mister Jay!" She looks up at me, tugging at my leg and staring at me with those little eyes of hers. Damn it all to hell, that looks so cute…

"Hmm? What is it, kiddo?" I raise an eyebrow when she tries to climb up my leg, failing miserably and sliding back down the moment she got any higher that the ground.

She points to my head with a large smile, jumping up and down in excitement. "I wanna get up there!" Grinning, I swiftly pick up the little Water-Type. "So, you want to go higher?" Her smile gets wider. "Yes! Up, up, up!" I then decide to mess with her, scratching my chin in fake contemplation. "Hmm, I dunno…" I deliberately trail off, my smile turning into a smirk.

"Come on! Please?" Her facial expression turns into a pleading one as she looks at me with a quivering lip, and her eyes seemingly get bigger as she gives me the dreaded 'Puppy dog look'. Even though I was trying my best not to look at the potentially fatal attack, her cuteness, which her face amplified tenfold, was quickly eating away at my mental defense, not that I had much to begin with.

"Aw, how could I say no to a face like that?" I laugh as I hoist her up, making sure that her legs were safely wrapped around my neck, as the length of her legs right now didn't really provide much safety in terms of piggyback rides. She held onto my hair, her weight causing my head to feel slight tinges of pain.

She didn't feel that stable around my neck either, as her weight felt like it was about to fall backwards off my neck. In retaliation to the forces of gravity, I bent myself over slightly, letting her weight fall back onto the back of my neck to ensure her staying up there.

Chell really seemed to like the view from there, as her holding onto some strands of my hair seemed to suggest. "Go forward, Mister Jay!" She giggles while I try to look up at her, my smile never wavering. "As you command, captain Chell!" I holler, both of us laughing together as we continue our walk through the quiet forest trail, its silence now completely destroyed by the two giggling goofballs sharing laughs together.

Of course, she calmed down after a few minutes of enjoying her new steed, the feeling of riding around the woods on my head tiring her out pretty fast. Her chin had long since decided to rest itself on my head, her small furry midsection pressed against the back of my skull. Aside from the slight discomfort of her chest shell pressed against the back of my head, I could feel her heartbeat. The soft thumping of her heart is faint, but doesn't go unnoticed. The soft, smooth rhythm of her beating heart is oddly relaxing to hear.

The feeling of something small and furry pressed against your head…kinda feels like a pillow. Except pillows don't talk, or have a heartbeat, or breathe…or occasionally poke your ears to figure out what they are.

Seriously, when she poked the hole of my ear, I felt the telltale ticklish feeling of the ear hole that I haven't felt in quite a while, her furry paws tickling the crap out of my ear and sending me into a giggling fit.

Speaking of which…uh-oh. "Cut it out, kiddo! I said not to touch me there!" I manage to get out between laughs, the curious Oshawott poking my ears constantly, giggling all the while. Having had enough of her attacks, I decide to stop and have a little fun. Grinning cheekily, I mentally rub my hands in preparation as a plan form s in my head. Perfect…

"Alright, that's enough outta you!" I growl in mock anger as I swiftly grab the offending head-riding ear tickler and hold her in front of me, the little culprit still giggling at my reaction. "Still laughing, are ya? Well, I think it's about time I show you my special attack."

She suddenly stops her giggling at the mention of my special attack. "Your…special attack?" She asks, actually looking scared at the mention of a special attack. I smirk at her, faking an evil grin. "Yes, my special attack. You have forced my hand, and now I'll be forced to use it! Muahahaha!"

My corny evil laughter does nothing to foreshadow the true potency of my special attack, as I quickly cradle her with my arm and tickle her under the armpits with the other. "Tickle Nuke! Feel my wrath, for you are powerless in the face of my special attack!" I growl as my fingers relentlessly assault her ticklish regions.

"Stop itahahahaahahahaha! Pleahehehehehehease! Have mercyhehehehehe!" She screams in between laughs as the effects of my special attack takes place, turning her into a laughing, screaming mess. "Stahahahahahahap! I'm gonna peehehehehehe!" She manages to choke out, tears of mirth rolling down her cheeks.

I cease my tickling of Chell's armpits, her laughter subsiding as she catches her breath and rests in the makeshift cradle that is my arm. "Hah…hah…That was really fun Mister Jay, but I feel a little tired right now." She sighs, a small smile on her face.

I smile back at her, rubbing her soft head fur and making sure to pay attention to her ears, scratching the area around them periodically. She sighs in bliss, nuzzling into my hand. "My special attack really wore you out, huh?" Hearing an affirmative 'mm-hmm" in response, I unzip my hoodie with my free hand, placing her into the area between my hoodie and my shirt. I quickly then place my hand back into my hoodie pocket, effectively cradling her with my hand through my hoodie, the unzipped area allowing her to peek out of my hoodie.

"Feel good in there?" Looking down at her, I see her eyes glaze over, lost in thought. "Hello? Earth to Chell?" Chell snaps out of it and looks up at me, her cute little head nodding an affirmative as she answers my question. "It's really warm in here. It feels nice…" She trails off, leaning back and snuggling into my chest, me enjoying her warmth and her doing the same. I reach up and scratch her head again, once again met with the small sounds of bliss that she tends to make when I pet her.

However, when my hand pulls away, she looks up at me again, that pleading look in her eyes. "Could you keep doing what you just did, Mister Jay? It felt really good when you did that…" She practically begs me, giving me another pleading look.

"Feels that good when I do that, huh? Okay, you asked for it." I smile, placing my hand on her head and continuing my ministrations. Once again, I hear her satisfied hums, the sounds oddly comforting as I start walking again.

Huh, I wonder when I get to fight something though. Although bonding with my partner is fun, I kinda also signed up for the thrill of battle. Watching Pokemon fight each other on the big screen as a kid really got me pumped. Man, I always saved some time for those fights. The punching, the strategy, the raw power placed in the moves they use…yeah, those were always a thrill to watch.

I really don't know how this happens, but I often get lost in thought whenever I think about things. I was so absorbed in this particular train of thought, in fact, that I managed to completely miss the telltale brown and white line indicating a Patrat's tail right in front of my foot.

"Gah! What the hell, asshole!?" The scream of pain followed by the profanity snaps me out of my thinking trance long enough for me to turn in the general direction of the voice to see a small brown blur attempting to ram into my crotch.

Quickly taking a sidestep to the right, I manage to slip out of the way of the Tackle attack on my more treasured areas. My sudden jerk to the right causes a disturbance in my hoodie as well, knocking Chell out of her endorphine-induced petting stupor. "Who-what-huh?" She mumbles, still slightly intoxicated by the buildup of endorphine.

I poke her on the nose, immediately bringing her back to her senses. Before she could ask me what was happening, though, I beat her to it. "To answer your question: We're being attacked by a Patrat I accidentally stepped on, I really need your help to fight it off, and you're drooling on the inside of my hoodie." I point out, moving out of the way of another poorly aimed Tackle. "I'm gonna kill you, you fuck! Hold still!" The small, rodent-like Pokemon had gotten back up after its second attempt on my life, and boy, did it look pissed.

I raise an eyebrow at the odd request. "And let you land a hit? No thanks. I'd really prefer that you don't hurt me." I chide, getting a small snicker from Chell, still in my hoodie space. "You could do more than just hang out in my hoodie and watch me spew insults at 'em, ya know." I deadpan, Chell's face quickly turning a shade of crimson in embarrassment.

"Oh. Oops." She sheepishly smiles at me while sticking out her tongue. "I'm ready now, Mister Jay. Let's do this!" She gives me an affirmative nod, wiping the small line of drool from her cheek. I quickly pick her up by her waist, setting her down onto the dirt path.

The Patrat's moving again. It's attacking with a basic attack aimed…there! "Three steps to the left!" I command, Chell moving out of the way of a Bite attack just in time. "Nice one!" I cheer, Chell moving out of the way of another Tackle attack. She looks surprised that I'm cheering her on though. Huh…

"Try hitting it with Razor Shell when it tries to get up close!" Surely enough, my simple plan proves to be effective against the opposing Pokemon, each small cut on its body not doing too much damage, but slowly draining away its stamina. It's rapid barrage of physical attacks slow down in succession, making each one easier and easier to dodge for Chell.

It looks tired, panting hard as it glares daggers at me. "I think one last cut should do it, Chell. Use Razor Shell once more!" At my command, Chell rushes forward, blade raised, but not before shaking her head as if snapping out of a trance. The Patrat suddenly rushes forward as well, scraping Chell's cheek with its claws, leaving three small cuts on her left cheek.

Chell's attack hits home at the same time, slamming into the rodent and launching it a few feet away and into a nearby bush. The bush rustles for a bit, then ceases to rustle, the Patrat's movements getting progressively further away.

Once the noise stops, I breathe out a sigh of relief, relishing in the sweet taste of victory. Walking over to Chell, I see that she hasn't relaxed just yet, shoulders still tense in anticipation. "Calm down, kiddo. Ya fought it off for now. He won't bother us again." She visibly relaxes, that smile returning to her face again. "Did I do good, Mister Jay?"

Chuckling, I pat her head. "Yeah, kiddo. You did good. Now, let me see to those cuts…" I trail off, checking her cheek for those wounds, both of us wincing at the damage done. "Yeesh, the little bugger got ya good back there. Stay put while I get you something for that." I smile at her as I reach a hand into my bag for a potion.

It took a little time, but I eventually dig up that little bottle of purple healing goodness. Crouching down to her level, I hold the small spray nozzle close to her cuts. "This'll make it heal faster, but it'll hurt for a bit. Stay strong for me, okay?" Seeing her nod in response, bracing for the pain with her eyes shut tight, I apply some of the healing liquid onto her cuts, seeing her wince and hiss in pain.

"There, I'm done." Slipping the potion back into my bag, I call for Chell to stick close to me, just in case of any more trouble. She seemed lost in thought until I called her again, shaking her head and continuing to walk alongside me. She keeps spacing out like that, but I wonder why…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

[Jay]

Man, the silence of the forest path is really unsettling. Walking along the worn down path through the trees, I contemplate talking to Chell again, mostly due to the silence, but also somewhat due to the emotions her face held when she was in a trance.

That was a look of surprise and uncertainty, most likely directed towards me. I can't help but feel like she's hiding something from me, something personal that she doesn't want me to know. I sure know how that feels…

But then again, why wouldn't she? She literally just met me, and I'd understand the idea of not sharing something so deep and/or personal with a stranger like me. The way I see it, it's best not to pry into matters of the personal level so quickly, lest I shatter what I've built with her already.

However, a successful team-up between Trainer and Pokemon requires communication and understanding, something I'd really want to clear out as soon as possible. Although I really don't see what the problem is. I haven't done anything to hurt her or offend her, right?

Pushing away all doubt into the back of my mind, I make a decision. It's time to figure out what's going on with my partner.

Clearing my throat to get her attention, which it does, I look at her with my usual smile, not letting any other emotions show underneath my grin. "Chell, there's something I would like to talk to you about."

This really peaks her interest, as she looks at me fully, confusion plain to see on her face. "What'cha wanna talk about, Mister Jay?" She's interested in what I have to say, so now's a good enough time as any to ask away.

"I wanna know what's been on your mind as of recently. I've noticed the spacing out during certain times of today, and I'd like to know why."

She's taken aback by the question, seemingly surprised that I had managed to pick up on her moments of thought. She seems almost uncertain about what to say to me. "Well, it's…"

As I was listening to her rather forced attempt to talk about her feelings, we hear a loud whooshing sound. Turning to look up, we are suddenly brought to the attention of a barrage of small, sharp blades flying towards us.

That's not important though. What we really need to focus on is getting the hell away from the area of the attack before we end up with a few more cuts than both of us would like. "Move!" My command get s across to Chell as we both dodge, the attack missing Chell by a hair, but one blade slicing into my right arm as I step to the left.

To say it hurt would be…pretty accurate actually. "Damn it, that hurts!" I hiss in pain, clutching my wounded arm. By the way that blood is leaking profusely I'd say that the attack hit something important. "Hey!" I shout, looking upwards at the bird Pokemon that made the attack. From the grey color scheme, I'd say that this is a Pidove that I'm looking at. "Not cool, dude! That was my one good arm!"

"Just you wait, Human! I'm going to hurt you a lot more than just that!" The bird retorts, anger clear to hear from the tone of voice it was using to address me.

Jeez, someone hasn't taken their chill pills this morning.

"Look, just leave us alone and wing it, alright? We don't want any trouble, we're just passing through." My attempt at reasoning with the agitated bird falls on deaf ears, as it takes my sentence as the cue to attack me with a Quick Attack.

"Shit!" Moving over to the right this time, I manage to sidestep out of the way of the Pidove's pointed beak, the sharp object just out of reach of my stomach. However, I step onto a rock, almost losing my balance as the bird glides past.

Fine. If Bird-Brain wants a fight, a fight it'll get. "Hey, Chell! You mind giving me a hand-or flipper, if you will?" I call out to my partner, looking around for any sight of her. Unfortunately for me, I catch no sight of her small form anywhere.

That is, until she spoke up. "You do realize I'm right here, right?" I look down to see the source of the voice, standing directly between my legs. Whoops. "Sorry, kiddo. Didn't notice you there." It seems that in my haste to avoid the bird, I had accidentally stepped right into the space near my partner.

Welp, that's not important right now. Moving away from the immediate area to be on the lookout for the small, swift attacking force hell-bent on tearing me a new one, I put a few feet of distance from myself and Chell, putting her in forward view.

Just in time too, as I once again notice the bird swooping down and readying another Quick Attack, closing in on me fast. "Chell! Blast it out of the air with Water Gun!" Chell's quick reflexes and aim allows her attack to strike true, knocking the offending PIdove out of it's attck and sending it spiraling to the ground. "Nice one!" I pump a fist as I cheer my partner on.

The Pidove doesn't go down easy, though. A quick outstretching of its wings quickly slows its rapid descent, and ensures that it doesn't slam head first into the ground below. Damn it. And here I thought I would finally get a break.

The Pidove, now back up in the air again, decides to aim straight for me again, launching a flurry of sharp blades made of air in my direction, making whooshing sounds with its small wings as it does so. This time, a few quick steps to the left ensures my escape from the grisly outcome of being cut to ribbons. My right arm decides to remind me of the damage it sustained during the initial encounter, however, as I feel a sharp, stinging pain flare up in my arm. Dust kicks up around me and obscures my vision, mostly due to the third attempt on my life.

"Fuck!" I hiss as the pain cuts through my coherent thoughts like a knife, causing me to temporarily slow down to stare at the wounded appendage hanging by my side. I can still feel my right hand, but the amount of red staining the blue of my hoodie indicates that that may not be the case for long. I need to finish this quick so I can seek medical attention.

However, Chell looks pretty beat after her fight with the annoying little shit of a Patrat, and the Pidove looks to be still in top fighting form. However, the bird has taken its eyes off of me for now, having turned to Chell and engaging in a conversation. "Why are you helping this human anyway? You could easily cut him down to size with that blade of yours, so why don't you?" The Pidove asks, clearly confused by the alliance I share with my partner.

"Because he hasn't done anything to hurt me. He even helped patch up my wounds when I got hurt!" Chell retorts, pointing to the three small, quickly fading claw marks on her cheek.

"She's right about that, you know." I say, now within a few feet of the conversing pair of Pokemon, taking both by surprise. "I thought I'd hit you with more blades that that, human." The bird looks up at me again, narrowing its eyes in hate. "Look here, Bird-brain. Just because you kicked up a big dust cloud round your target, doesn't mean you hit 'em." I shrug, getting more anger out of the Pidove.

Taking off again, the bird looks back down at us. "Then I'll make sure to hit you next time." It retorts, launching a few more blades at me in a more focused manner. This time, due to the way that it fired the blades, I was quick to dodge the small area of effect that the attack had. "Nice try, Bird-brain. But I'm not just gonna let you hit me." I yawn, egging it on even further.

Now flaring up with anger, the Pidove starts to yell at me. "My name isn't Bird-brain, you stupid monkey!" It shouts, my attempts at pissing it off working like a charm. "Yeah whatever, Bird-brain. You gonna actually try and hit me this time, or what?" I yawn, a bored look etched onto my face.

Screaming out in anger, the Pidove glides downwards, readying another Quick Attack to try and gut me a fifth time. This time around, I was ready. The second the bird neared the ground to attack, I stepped to the side and issued my next command. "Now, Chell! Water Gun!" Another quick blast of water knocks the Pidove out of the air, causing it to give a startled yelp as it crashes into a low lying rock behind where I just was, causing its right wing to stick out at an awkward angle. "Nice job, kiddo." I give Chell a thumbs-up from my standing position, which she gladly returns with a wave.

Giving a cry of pain, the Pidove tries to get up, but fails miserably as its recently broken wing allowed it no chance to get back up into the air. Walking up to the struggling Pokemon, I kneel down next to it while it shoots me another hate filled look.

"What are you still looking at? Aren't you going to finish what you started?" The bird spat, its glare unchanging. Sighing, I shake my head. "That's what I should be asking you, Bird-brain." "My name isn't Bird-brain, idiot!" It shouts back. I shrug in response. "Then what is your name then? You didn't exactly tell me your name when you tried to kill me five seconds ago." The Pidove stops at that, face heating up in embarrassment. "Shut up." It turns its head away, stuttering a little.

"You gonna tell me your name then?" I ask, moving my head around to meet her gaze. After a few awkward seconds with no response, I turn to the Oshawott next to me, currently gazing at the sheer amount of blood covering my arm.

"Are you okay, Mister Jay? That looks really painful..." She trails off as I pat her on the head, my light scratching causing her to relax into my hand with a small sigh. "Yeah, kiddo. I'll be fine." I reply while scratching behind her ear. "What about her, Mister Jay?" She points to the Pidove, still trying to ignore us with that wing of hers.

"So it's a she, then?" I ask my partner in turn, earning me a deadpan look in response. "Really? You didn't notice the way her voice sounded, Mister Jay?" I sheepishly shrug and grin at her, turning back to the small bird. "So, shall we get going?" I ask Chell, getting a nod in response. "Alright then." I scoop up the Pidove into my embrace while making sure not to touch her wing, earning a startled yelp from the bird.

She looks up at me with that same glare she had a while ago. "What the hell do you think you're doing, human!?" She shouts at me, pecking at my arm in an attempt to get me to let go.

As she says this, I stop in my tracks to look at my unwilling passenger. "So, you would rather I leave you here to die?" I ask her, my gaze staring straight into her soul. She flinches for a moment under my gaze, but glares back at me. "It's better than being a slave to a lowly human." I raise an eyebrow in response. "What gave you that idea? I don't enslave Pokemon, or at least I don't think I do…" I trail off as I take a glance at Chell, who looks back at me in confusion.

"Am I enslaving you, Chell?" I ask her. But before she could give a response, I answer the question for her. "I am!? Oh, no! I have become the evil person I have sworn to defeat!" Chell catches on to the joke quickly, acting along with me. "It's true! This evil human has made me his personal plaything! Whatever will I do?" We both laugh for a little while after that little fiasco, Chell giggling like mad and me following soon after.

The bird, needless to say, was extremely confused. "What? But…huh?" She stammers, unable to process the sight before her. Noticing her stunned expression, I stifle my remaining laughter and look back at her.

"Told you. I don't enslave Pokemon, otherwise Chell here would have cut me down in a heartbeat." I gesture over to my partner, still riding out the last wisps of laughter in her system.

"Anyways, like I was saying before, I want to help you. We're just on our way to the nearest town, so you could join us over to the nearest Pokemon Center and get your wing fixed up. After that, you can leave whenever you want. Sound good to you?" I ask, waiting on her reply.

"…Fine. But this doesn't mean we're cool, got it?" She replies, her face still holding a look of anger, but it was slowly softening up. "Alright then, Chell. You heard the bird, let's go!" I motion for her to follow, slowing down my pace for her to catch up to me.

As we walk, I hear the bird poke at my chin with her good wing, causing me to look down at her. "Alita." She mumbles in a voice that could easily be blown away in the cool breeze. "Who's that?" She growls at my response. "That's my name, alright!? It's Alita." She says, a little louder this time. "And…and thank you." She mumbles in that barely audible voice again. I catch on to that sentence, though.

Cracking a smile, I extend my wounded arm to give her a pat on the top of her head, the blood slightly staining her soft, grey head. "Mine's Jay. Nice to meet ya, Alita." I reply, smiling at her.

"Mister Jay, I'm tired…" Chell moans as she walks, the fight having aken quite a bit out of her energy. Sighing, I pick her up and place her into the arm I'm cradling Alita with, holding the two small Pokemon close together. As Chell snuggles against my chest and Alita buries her head in her wing, I refocus on the road ahead, the small town of Accumula now slightly visible in the distance. About time too, as the wound on my arm isn't about to heal itself…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

[Jay]

"Hold still!" The soothing voice of the local Nurse Joy snakes its way into my ears as she pierces the stitching needle into the flesh of my arm to patch up my arm wound. After a quick explanation of the situation when I came in with two blood stained Pokemon and my arm bleeding below the shoulder, she quickly came to my aid, leaving her Audino to look after the two Pokemon I brought in.

Her voice didn't really help to alleviate the pain my arm was suffering from, though. "Sorry, doc. Hard to do that when your arm feels like it's getting shot…" I trail off into a hiss as the sharp needle once again finds its way through the soft flesh of my arm, drawing another pinprick of blood. This time though, my arm doesn't move away as much as it did the last time she tried to stitch the two sides together.

"And there. All done." Nurse Joy confirms while cutting away the last of the excess thread from the recently done stitch. "Now, I want you to promise me that you won't use this arm for anything stressful with that arm of yours while it heals. Do I make myself clear?" She asks, bandaging up my wound and sterilizing the area with alcohol.

"But how will I fap now, doc?" I whine, smirking at her. "I mean, you've left me pretty much unarmed to deal with stress buildup here." She gives a small smirk in reply as she smacks the top of my head lightly with her note board. "No stress relief for you, mister. This is your pun-ishment for not taking care of yourself." She giggles as she lends me a hand to stand me on my feet from my sitting position on the chair.

Just as I get to stand up and slip on my shirt, an Audino makes its way into the room and hands over a piece of paper on another note board to Nurse Joy. She reads it for a bit, and the turns back to me. "Good news, Jay. Your Oshawott seems to be doing just fine, aside from the claw marks on its cheek. Your Pidove's wing should heal in a day or two, considering the treatment it's been given. All in all, your team made it through without any major injuries."

I nod my head in response to the report. "That's good to hear, doc. Can I see them now?" She nods her head in reply. "Of course you can. They're in the dining hall, stuffing their faces. Just take it easy, okay? Those stitches could give way and reopen the wound, and you certainly don't want that, do you?" I give her a thumbs-up. "Will do, doc. Thanks again." She smiles back and nods. "Anytime, Jay."

Moving from the medical ward into the dining hall, the thing I notice first about the place is the large, open area with loads of tables just placed evenly around the place. Walking in, I turn to the left, in the direction of the chewing sounds. There, on a table in the corner of the dining hall, I see Chell and Alita, the former stuffing her face with raw Basculin, while the other looks at her bowl of berries with suspicion and hesitating to eat. My hoodie lying on the seat next to them, as well as my bag.

I sit down opposite to the two on the table, petting them both on the head with my hands. Chell eagerly invites the touch of my fingers, while Alita almost shies away from the touch, still on the fence about letting me touch her willingly.

"Hi, Mister Jay! Try the fish, it's so good!" Chell exclaims with her mouth full, handing me a piece of that raw, tender fish fillet. I gently push the raw morsel away from me, causing Chell to look back at me in confusion. "You don't want any?" She inquires, tilting her head slightly, making her look so cute and cuddly…

"Sorry, kiddo. It's just that I can't really digest that stuff. Raw meat doesn't sit well with my stomach. So by all means, go ahead and dig in." I lightly gesture over to the rest of the Basculin, which she happily devours.

Meanwhile, Alita still hasn't touched her food, still looking at her plate apprehensively. "You not gonna eat that, Ali?" She doesn't look at me, still eying her bowl with distaste. "I'll take that as a no, then." I shrug, turning my head slightly to look at the both of them. "To be honest with you both, I don't really like the food here either. I've got a place here that I really like around here, though."

Getting up from the table, I look back at the two of them. "You coming or what? I swear, this place serves some real good fish sticks…" Chell agrees with me almost instantly, getting down and off the table, looking ready to go. Alita doesn't move from her spot though.

"You coming, Ali?" I ask, to which she responds by giving me a deadpan stare and using her beak to point to her bandaged wing. "Oh. Sorry, I forgot." I then scoop her off the table and cradle her in my right arm, my left reaching out to grab my hoodie and bag, still on the leftward chair of the table. "Come with me, kiddo. I know a shortcut." As we walk out the door of the PokeCenter, Chell decides to talk with me about other matters.

"Mister Jay, I'm don't like the idea of letting her come along." Chell looks up at me, grabbing my pant leg to grab my attention. "Hmm? Why's that, kid?" I raise an eyebrow, not too sure about what she meant. "I mean, she doesn't really seem to like you, so why keep her around?" Of course, our conversation doesn't go unnoticed. "I'm right here, you know." Alita throws in her two cents.

Hearing her opinion, I put my free hand on my chin to stroke my imaginary beard, giving some thought about what I should tell her. "Well, let me put it this way. She's in need of help right now, and I feel like I'm pretty much responsible for the mess she's in right now. So, I'll do whatever I can to help her." I look at the bird perched nicely in the cradle of my arm, causing her to turn away from me with a small 'hmph'.

"Besides, I don't really think she hates me that much. Do you, Alita?" I ask the Pidove, still unwilling to stare at me directly. "Of course I hate you! I can never forgive what your kind did to me…" She trails off in a snarl. What my kind did? She probably had a real bad run-in with some hunters or something, which would explain why she was alone…

"We're here." I stop in front of a small, worn down bar. The word 'Grillby's' in capital letters showing on top of the bar with an unlit orange neon sign, while glass windows show the inside of the bar. There are a few customers seated at the tables within, most wearing police uniforms. I walk inside, with my two Pokemon in tow.

The minute I walk in, the patrons of the bar turn to look at the newest entry into the small, lit bar. Almost immediately, they start to greet me with the usual comments. "Nice seeing you here, Jay." A rather pudgy looking gentleman in a trench coat greets me. "Nice to see you too, Chuck. Taking real good care of the belly, I see." I poke fun at the jolly businessman, getting a chorus of laughter in response. "You finally getting off your lazy ass and going off on your journey, lazybones?" The local Officer Jenny, known to the ones under her command, me included as Trish, greets me with the usual knock-the-wind-outta-you pat on the back.

"Good to see you too, Boss." I give her a fist bump as I sit down to face the bartender. He's wearing a black suit, complete with a bowtie also in black, which complements his fiery orange hair. His calm demeanor remains unchanged as he cleans the glass with a rag he's holding and looks at me, but the corners of his lips turn up a little at the sight of me.

His greeting is as simple as always. "Hello, Jay." He gives a curt nod in my direction.

"Heya, Grilby. Thought I'd stop by the old place one last time before heading off." I smirk back at the bartender/owner of the bar. "You know these people, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, looking a little surprised. "Sure do, kid. I drop by here quite often for lunch, sometimes for a quick drink." I reply, hoisting her onto the seat next to mine. As she sits down though, the sound of a whoopee cushion sounds again throughout the bar. As Chell looks at what she sat on, she gives a giggle-a small deflated whoopee cushion is placed directly under her, the small object inflating once again as she picks it up. The words 'Jay's Property' is scrawled in slightly messy writing on the side of the cushion.

The sound doesn't go unnoticed by the bar patrons, however, as loud laughing rings through the bar, Chell's laughter included. "Good one, Jay!" One of the policemen laughs while I shoot him a thumbs-up. Once the laughter calms down, I resume my talk with her. "Watch where you sit, kid. Weirdos sometimes put whoopee cushions on the seats." I chuckle, taking the object from her and placing it up my sleeve while Chell smirks and rolls her eyes at me.

Looking at the options of food on the chalkboard next to Grilby, I scratch my chin in contemplation of what I should order. I really don't know what to order, though. Everything sounds good to me right now.

Not able to make up my mind, I turn to the two Pokemon with me. "What do you feel like, you two?" Chell doesn't wait to hear what Alita has to say, immediately pointing to the option of fish sticks written on the chalkboard. "Nice choice. What about you, Ali?" I ask the bird still perched on my arm. "I don't want anything from you." She answers me with a little less malice in her tone. But I can see her attention shifting to the menu, taking small peeks at the picture of spicy fried octopus on the list. "Alright then. Grilby! One small order of spicy fried octopus and two medium orders of fish sticks along with the usual, please."

As Grilby leaves to get the orders filled, I feel Alita poking my arm with her beak. "Yeah, Ali?" I ask. "…How did you know?" She asks after a short pause. Smiling back at her, I pat her on the head. She reluctantly moves in to accept my hand's touch, melting into the ministrations of my fingers. As she does, I feel her relax in my arm. "That's easy. I pay attention when my friends want something, and you looked like you wanted 'em." I answer back, letting her relax for a while longer. As I do, I hear a muffled 'thank you' in response. "Anytime, Alita. Anytime."

Right at that moment, Grilby arrives with our orders: One plate of spicy fried octopus, two plates of fish sticks, and the usual of a bottle of ketchup. "Thanks, Grilbz." I thank the guy as I immediately take a swig of the ketchup, Grilby nodding in reply.

Chell immediately takes notice of my behavior. "What are you drinking, Mister Jay?" She asks, pointing to the bottle of ketchup in my hand. "Oh, this? This is ketchup. It makes lots of things taste real good, like your fish sticks. Wanna try?" Seeing her nod, I pour a little ketchup onto her fish stick, which she takes a bite out of. The food makes her cheeks puff out a little, and that combined with how her eyes lit up made her look so damn cute…

"Heh. You like the taste, huh?" Upon seeing her rapid nods, I chuckle and pour a little more ketchup to the side of her plate. "Dip your food in this whenever you feel like." As she continues to munch her way through the fish sticks, I see Alita having little to no trouble with the octopus, pecking off small bites of the stuff and eating it.

Turning to my own fish sticks and taking a bite, I savor the intense flavor of fish, breadcrumbs and dill mixed together with the ketchup dip on the side of the plate. Absolutely delicious. The crunch of the breadcrumbs complement the fish perfectly, the dill adding another layer of flavor to the fish.

Finishing up the last of my food, I down another gulp of ketchup from the bottle. Chell had finished her food a while ago, while Alita is just finishing up on her meal, pecking at the last remnants of crispy fried octopus. Pulling out my wallet, I fish out a 50 dollar bill and hand it over to Grilby. "Here ya go, Grilbz. This should be enough to cover the meal." Nodding again, he leaves to get my change. I take this opportunity to take another look at the two satisfied Pokemon next to me. Noticing the breadcrumbs on Chell's face, I give a sigh and grab the napkin off the table to clean up the remainder of the crumbs off her face.

She giggles as I do so. "Stop it, Mister Jay! That tickles!" She laughs as I brush the area around her whiskers lightly. "Hold still, Chell! You've still got crumbs on your face!" I grin, wiping away the last of the crumbs. Using the other side of the napkin, I turn to Alita, who has oil staining her beak. "Come on, Ali. Let me clean that oily beak of yours." I sigh, reaching over to wipe her beak free of its oily coating. She doesn't move around as much as Chell did, holding still for the most part. She doesn't reject my touch this time, though.

Grilby hands me my change of 12 dollars, which I slip into my wallet. Hoisting Chell off the chair and cradling Alita in my arm again, I get up off the chair and start walking towards the door, but not before grabbing the bottle of ketchup. "Thanks, Grilby. That was a great meal as always." He replies with a nod as I walk out the door, waving the other patrons goodbye as they wave back.

"Let's head back, shall we team? I'm getting tired, and I'd really like to head back and take a nap." I jerk a thumb towards the PokeCenter and walk towards it, with Chell in tow and Alita snuggling closer to my chest.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

[Jay]

"Whee! Whee! You have to try this, Mister Jay!" Chell giggles, bouncing up and down on the PokeCenter bed in the room that we rented for the night. Alita nestles herself onto a pillow next to the Oshawott, eyeing Chell from a small distance. The angle at which the room is located gives us a nice view of the afternoon sun outside.

"For the last time, kiddo! If I bounce on that, I'll break it!" I roll my eyes and smirk at the hyperactive little Pokemon happily bouncing away on my bed. Alita looks away, apparently wanting to have nothing to do with the situation at hand. "Anyways, I'm going to head off and take a bath."

"Can I come with you, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, having stopped her bouncing and gotten off the bed. My face goes a slight tinge redder than it's supposed to be, and I let out an awkward cough. "Yeah…no, sorry kid. You can't come with." I kindly reject the offer, not wanting her to see…certain aspects of me. "Why not?" Chell asks, head tilting to the side in curiosity. "Well, it's because of certain rules that I have to follow. Being naked in front of someone is a really big no-no from where I'm from, especially when you're naked in front of someone of the opposite gender." I explain a little too quickly. "Na…ked?" Chell repeats, unfamiliar with the word. I sigh in response. "When you have no clothes on? I wear clothes all the time, remember?" I deadpan, causing her to give a sheepish smile. "Oops. Sorry, forgot about that."

With that little problem out of the way, I get ready to head off to the shower. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. Ali, could ya keep an eye on her for a while? I don't want her breaking anything." I call out to the Pidove, still eyeing the view outside.

"I'm not taking orders from you." She growls, still looking outside. "Come on! Do this for me, please…" I plead, hands clasped together in a begging position. This time, she turns to look at me. "You look so pathetic right now." She remarks, the corners of her beak tilting slightly upwards in a smirk. "Could you do this for me? Just this one, tiny little favor?" Seeing me unfazed by her snide comment, she's taken aback, looking unsure about what to do. "…Fine! But just because I have nothing better to do." She finally says, looking away from me once more.

"Sweet! Now, I can take that bath!" I cheer, grabbing my spare clothes and walking over to the bathroom. "Oh, and Ali?" I call out before I shut the door. "What?" She sighs. "Thanks for helping me." I look back over to her as I shut the door. What I didn't hear after that, because I had already taken off my Xtranceiver and was testing the water, was a small "you're welcome" from the bird.

Taking off my clothes after the water filling the tub reaches the right temperature, I take off my shirt and toss it over to the side with the rest of my used clothing pile. While the water fills the tub, I take a moment to stare at myself. I'm not a scrawny person, but I'm not bodybuilder levels of ripped either. But the one thing that I can't bring myself to tear my eyes away from is the scars. From my shoulder to a little ways further from the elbow, third degree burns line the flesh of my arms. Lines of red and dark red and of varying thickness are plain to see as I trace one of them, the touch of my hand going unfelt.

Looking over to my torso, I see on my chest and slightly visible abs those needle marks. Round and each one roughly spanning half a centimeter in diameter, and one for each side of my chest, and four on my lower torso. However, the most obviously gruesome detail that the past decides to remind me with are the multiple long scars of mortally wounding gashes that were once inflicted upon me. If I didn't know any better, it would appear that I was something that got cut to shreds and put together again. Covering most of my chest and a little of my abs, these long, red scars combined with the markings on my arms are the brutal reminder that life isn't always fair.

Sighing, I finally manage to tear my eyes away from the sight. "Sometimes, the past is better off forgotten." I mutter to no one in particular as I slide my way into the soothing water of the tub, groaning in relaxation as the warm medium washes all my troubles away. Throwing in a pack of bath salts that was to the side of the tub on the bathtub rack, I take a long, hard whiff as the air around me is surrounded by the sweet smell of mint and lemons.

Small tinges of pain wash over me when I sink my arms into the water, but the scars have been with me for so long that I've more or less gotten used to their presence. "Ah, this is the shit right here…" I sigh as the scent combined with the warmth of the water causes my muscles to relax and unwind.

As comforting as that stuff was, I shuffle out of the bath about fifteen minutes later. Don't really want to pass out in there. Besides, those two don't really seem all that comfortable here, not knowing how half of the thing in this room work and such, so I've gotta go talk to them a little more.

Taking a towel to dry myself off, I slip on my new set of clothes-still a set of a white shirt, black pants and a blue hoodie. What? Don't judge. I like keeping my wardrobe simple. Never really was much of a fashion person anyhow.

Humming a familiar tune to myself as I walk out the door, I make my way into the central bedroom to see the two small Pokemon having some conversation between each other. Seems like those two are getting along just fine, which makes my job a little easier.

"Hey, you two. I see you're making nice already?" I sit down next to the both of them as I ruffle Chell's head, getting a giggle from the Oshawott. "She's not that bad, Mister Jay! She's been talking to me about how flying feels, but I'm having trouble understanding what that feels like." She replies, looking back over to Alita, who quickly turns away from me the second I look at her.

"Again, thanks for helping me out with keeping an eye out for her Ali." She still doesn't move, looking outside with that same blank expression. "You okay?" I ask, raising an eyebrow as I tilt my head into her field of view. "Does that even matter to you?" She asks back, her voice harsh. "It does matter. If you tell me, I can help you with your problem." I tell her, causing her to look at me in surprise. "What? I thought you said you wanted to help me." She repeats, now showing disbelief.

"You heard me. I want to help. So, what seems to be the problem?" She responds by giving a sigh and looking back towards the window. "Nothing. Thanks for asking, Jay." "Did you call me by my name, Ali?" I smirk, asking in a playful tone. "No I didn't, human! You must have heard me wrong." She quickly denies the mention of my name, causing me to shrug. "Would you mind if you called me by my name instead of 'human'? My name sounds…nicer." She looks back and nods an affirmative towards my request.

"Anyways, I'm getting a little bored. Wanna watch some TV?" I ask, holding up the small remote on the bedside table. "What's TV?" Chell asks, tilting her head to the side in what could be considered the cutest damn display possible. This also catches Alita's attention, having looked away from her window view and staring at the TV remote.

"You don't know what TV is? Then sit back, relax and let me take you on a journey through the mystical realm known as the television screen." I say in a poorly imitated epic sounding voice while waving my hands in circles, causing Chell to giggle and Alita to roll her eyes at me. Turning on the TV with the remote and flicking to the movie channels, I instantly see Chell's face light up in seconds.

The next seven hours were spent by the three of us like any self respectable couch potatoes would: laughing at comedy, screaming at horror, Chell marveling over the action packed superhero films, and Alita eyeing everything in interest. I didn't really have a say in what to watch, as Chell would immediately flick over to another movie as soon as we finished the last one. I initially thought she'd be pretty terrified at the sight of blood, but she seemed to take it pretty well. Alita didn't really mind either, more focused on watching the film from start to finish.

Glancing at the clock, I noticed that it was eight in the evening already. Man, time sure flies when you're having fun. "Alright, girls. We gotta get down over to the dining hall if we wanna catch some dinner." I poke Chell's head as she was about to flick over to another movie, wiggling a finger at her. "But I wanna keep watching, Mister Jay!" She pouts, cheeks slightly puffed up in slight annoyance. Her stomach decides to disagree, however, as it lets out a growl, causing her to blush in embarrassment. "See? Even your stomach wants to chow down, kid. Let's grab some food, and then we can come back and watch some more." I promise her, putting on my hoodie and scooping up Alita into my arm again.

Humming a tune while I walk over to the door, grab the keycard and slip it into my pocket, I turn back around to see Chell sticking close by, adjusting the shell on her torso. "Those movies were so cool, though!" Chell exclaims as we walk down the corridor leading to the elevator. "That robed guy was like 'This is madness!' and the other guy was like 'This is Sparta!' and kicked the guy into the hole!" She continued to rant, eyes almost shining with glee as she did so.

"They were okay, I guess." Alita speaks up from the arm cradle, looking at nothing in particular. "I liked the one with the human running away from the giant boulder in the temple." Judging from the comments, I'd say that those two enjoyed the TV shows. "I've seen those before, but seeing them a few more times never hurt." I comment, walking over to the elevator and pressing the button.

"Boy, I'm starving! Can't wait to stick my face in some food." I lick my lips, patting my belly in anticipation as we step into the opened elevator doors, the small metallic box bringing us down to the dining hall. "Me too." Alita mumbles, now finally looking at me when she spoke. "Me three!" Chell giggles as the elevator gives a light 'ding' and we step outside.

What the two Pokemon saw next visibly shocked them. All around them, the busy sounds of eating, talking and food being served filled our ears as people and Pokemon alike feasted together. From large to medium to small sized Pokemon accompanied by trainers, everyone was here eating, drinking and overall having a great time.

"Wow…" Was all Chell could say as she and Alita looked around, trying to get used to seeing so many people in a single area. While Chell looks on in awe, Alita tenses up in my arm, eyes now darting from left to right, indicating that she's on edge right now. Walking over to the hotel staff at the entrance of the place, I hold up my keycard to show them, the staff giving me a thumbs-up as I walk in and pick a table.

Sitting down and hoisting Chell up with my free hand, I place Alita on the table and gently stroke her back, causing her to look at me in shock and surprise. "What are you doing!?" She shouts, her outburst almost going unheard due to the loud din of the diners around us. "I'm trying to get you to calm down, Ali. I know you're not comfortable around other humans, but at least try to stay calm okay?" My attempt at comforting her seems to work as she visibly relaxes.

"I'll try to." She reluctantly says after a while. "Chell?" I turn to the small Oshawott, still looking around as I put her back down on the ground. "You can take whatever food you want to eat back here, so go nuts." Gasping in glee, she runs off towards the food area, grabbing her plate in the process. "Alright. Now that you've managed to calm down, can I get you something?" I ask, Alita, jerking a thumb towards the tables of food over to the left. "I'll have some berries, please." She replies after a moment of thought. "As you wish, Milady." I give a small bow, a smirk adorning my facial features. "Just go, idiot." She rolls her eyes in annoyance, giving a small smile as she does so. "Come on, you're smiling." I reply as I walk off, gabbing a plate off the table to get the food that we want.

It's really nice to see that she's finally warming up to me after all this time trying to get to her. Now, what do I want to eat today? Reaching into the left pocket of my favorite blue hoodie, I realize that I've still got half a bottle of ketchup in my pocket I still haven't drunk yet, so maybe something to put ketchup on would be ideal. Some sandwiches sound nice, or maybe the hotdogs. "…Yeah, definitely going for the hotdogs." I mutter to myself as I stroll over to the pastry section, hoping to find some delicious hotdogs.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

[Jay]

Walking over to the pastry section, I am immediately greeted by the sight of a variety of different delectable baked goods. From croissants and baguettes to a few pies and cakes, the assortment of pastries laid bare for all to eat is simply marvelous. Taking a whiff, the smell of freshly bakes pies and tarts filling my nostrils as I let out a big sigh. It smells real good in here too.

Navigating the network of tables, I quickly find what I'm looking for-a pile of hotdogs laying under a heating stand, each one looking just as delicious as the next. Licking my lips in anticipation, I move over to grab one, but I don't notice the person extending a hand to grab the exact one I was aiming at. The result for the both of us wasn't a handful of hotdog, but a handful of fingers. "Oh. Sorry, dude. Didn't see you there." I apologize, looking over to the person next to me. Long, white hair, taller than me-wait a second. I know who this is!

I didn't get the chance to say her name though, as the person in question quickly grabs me into a hug, grinning all the way. "Brother! It is good to see you here!" Yupia exclaims, snuggling her cheek into the top of my head. "Good to see you too, sis." I tell her back as she lets me down. "So, how are you faring, dear brother? I hope your laziness hasn't gotten in the way of you making progress." Yupia asks, piling two hotdogs onto her plate. "I'm doing okay, but I ran into some trouble and got this." I smirk, pointing to the recent wound on my arm, now stitched up. "Pretty cool, right?"

My sister only sighs at the sight of my arm wound. "Honestly Jay, if you had actually taken the time to practice dodging more, you wouldn't have this on you right now." I shrug apathetically, looking back towards her from my cool new scar. "I can assure you, sis, that the experience wasn't too scarring for me." Yupia fumes at my joke, obviously not amused. "JAY! Now is not the time for your jokes!"

"What are you talking about, Yu? I have no idea what Yu mean." I chuckle, her angry expression really amusing to me. She groans at the second pun, lips slightly curling up against her will. "Don't deny it, sis. You love my jokes. You're even smiling." I point out. "I am and I hate it!" Her exasperated reply gets more laughs out of me, leaving me to try and use my free hand to stifle the remainder of my laughter. Her reactions to my jokes are the same every time-priceless.

"Why don't we catch up over dinner? You go grab the food ya want, and I'll go get myself some salad from the table over there." I point over to the fruits and vegetables section over to the right of our current position. "Head on over to the right and you'll see a table with a small bird sitting on the side. Can't miss it." "Great idea, brother! I'll fetch my team and we'll see you over there in a bit." She replies, waving goodbye to me as she takes a left turn towards her table.

Moving over to the salad bar myself, I take a few seconds to come to a decision before asking the staff member, a young looking man, to get me the salad I want. "One Berry Salad please. With extra Cheri Berries." I point to the tray of small, red berries as he takes some berries from every tray, making sure to scoop in an extra helping of Cheri Berries. "You like spicy things, man?" The staff member asks me as I hand him a twenty dollar bill. "Nah, don't really like that stuff myself. It's for my Pokemon. She's roughed up real bad, so I'm helping her get what she wants."

"So it's for the Pokemon, eh? Gotta hand it to ya, dude. You're one of the kinder Trainers that come over here for a snack. Most of the people I serve here really don't care about what their Pokemon want, usually ignoring them completely. I should know, cause I've seen many a Pokemon stare at these juicy things for a while before getting the hate from their trainers about disobedience."

I sigh in response. "What some people don't seem to understand about Pokemon is that they have feelings and are sapient too, like we are. Being sent to Trainer School really showed me that some people really don't care about the well being of their Pokemon." He nods in agreement. "Well, nice talking to ya, man. Catch ya later." The staff member smiles, handing me eight dollars in change which I quickly pocket. "Likewise, dude." I nod as a grab my salad and hotdogs, weaving my way back through the crowd and towards my table, where I've left a certain Pidove waiting for quite some time.

Taking a turn after exiting the salad bar area, I move past many faces at a rather brisk pace, quickly finding my table again amidst the chaos, seeing Alita still perched on the table, Chell sitting behind a large plate of fish sticks. She's not eating it though. Strange, because she usually drills through food like no tomorrow. However, upon getting closer, I notice two things. One, is that Alita and Chell are getting bullied. Two, the one doing the bullying and with friends is none other than the biggest bag of dicks to ever grace this side of the earth.

If you still haven't guessed who the one picking on my Pokemon is, then here's one last hint. "What kind of peasant keeps Pokemon this useless around?"

If you guessed Jimmy, then congratulations! You get to listen to insults about how poor you are for the next fifteen minutes.

Quickly moving over to the table in an attempt to stop the unfair harassment, I am immediately blocked by two of his rich lackeys. "Excuse me, gentlemen. I couldn't help but notice you harassing my Pokemon." I state. "Hey, beat it loser! Can't you see we're having fun over here?" One of them laughs as he swings a fist into my direction. I immediately dodge the attempt to smash my face in, however he does manage to slug my wounded arm instead, the wound leaking blood again as I grit my teeth in pain.

"Damnit." I growl, the blood showing through my spare hoodie. "Wanna try again, dumbass? Or are you going to back down before this gets ugly?" The lackey taunts, Jimmy finally noticing the commotion between his friends.

"Look what the cat dragged in. Hello, Jay. I told you that you would regret this. I couldn't get to you, so I'm taking the anger out on your pathetic team." He snickers, his rich prick friends joining in. He then walks over to Alita, his dirty little fingers latching onto her injured wing. He gives an evil smirk as Alita scowls at his touch, my own grin faltering for a moment. No, he wouldn't dare… "Look what we have here. It would be a shame if someone were to…" He trails off, holding onto her wing and starting to bend it, Alita crying out in pain.

"Oh, no you don't!" His action is quickly interrupted by Chell, who takes her shell and quickly smashes it over Jimmy's knuckle, causing him to shriek in pain and clutch his injured hand. "Damn it!" He turns to his two rich lackeys. "Well don't just stand there! Beat him up!" The two charge towards me, each having a fist pulled back, ready to punch me. However, quick reflexes catch both their fists in my hands, rendering them useless.

Before they could recover from the shock of having both fists blocked, an electric current quickly runs from both of my hands, causing both attackers to fall to the floor, their spasms the only signs of movement. Lifting up my hands, two modified joy buzzers can be seen on the inside of my palms. Don't look so surprised. Working in a lab means lots of spare parts to toy with, and I do love me some tinkering action.

Walking over to Jimmy and stopping inches from him, I look at him, but the way I'm leaning my head makes sure that he doesn't see my eyes, the shadow of my hoodie blocking his view of my eyes. "Listen here, bub. You have two choices now. Either back away, or stay and have a really bad time. What's it gonna be?" I ask, my voice now nothing but a shadow of its former cheery self.

Shaking now, the sniveling little bitch runs off. "My dad will hear about this, peasant! Do you hear me!?" He screams, running away from the scene, the people watching letting their gazes follow him. I shrug in reply. "Like I give a flying fuck about that." I mutter, walking over to the two Pokemon. Chell looks up at me happily, while Alita doesn't, still looking at her injured wing. "I'm…so sorry, you two. I really didn't mean to get you two dragged into this." My apology catches both of them off guard, both of them looking at me like I had said something wrong.

"Anyway, I'll go get patched up, alright?" I lift Alita up into my arm, clutching my wound with my free hand as I calmly turn around to start walking out of the dining hall. "Brother! Are you alright?" I once again see my sister, this time not pulling me into a bone crushing bear hug. Instead, she takes Alita for me as we both make our way out of the dining hall. "Stay put, Chell. I'll be back in a moment." I nod to her as I walk off, getting a nod from her in return. "You be good now, okay?" Yupia calls over to her Tepig, who lets out a small snort in reply.

"He decided to assert his ego onto you again, didn't he?" Yupia sighs as we make our way towards the medical wing on level 1 of the PokeCenter. "Yeah, he's always been like that, huh? Always a little shit." I grin, wincing a little from the reopened wound. "That we can agree on." Yupia cracks a small smile despite herself.

Knocking on the door of Nurse Joy's office and getting no reply, I decide to speak up. "Uh, Joy? It's me, Jay." The door opens, revealing a rather tired and irritated Nurse Joy behind it. "Yes, how may I…" She sighs as she sees my bleeding arm. "I thought I told you not to exert pressure on it!" She scolds, her tone that which an angry mother would use to tell off a child.

"Kinda not my fault, Joy. I was attacked by some gang of rich kids, and Alita's wing got caught in the crossfire." I explain, jerking a thumb over to the bird resting in my sister's arms. "I see. Come inside and let's get you a quick fix…" She pushes me inside her office and beckons for Yupia to follow.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, we walk out of the office with my arm wound covered in bandages. Alita's wing didn't suffer too much damage, Jimmy not really bending it too far, and I didn't reopen the wound too much either, as a couple more stitches fixed that in a flash. "Hey sis, let's say we head on back to the table and catch up on how we've been doing. I'm sure Chell's getting lonely over on the table we left her at." I suggest, my sister quickly agreeing to the arrangement. "An excellent idea, brother! I'm sure the rest my team is at the table by now."

Walking over to the table and taking a seat, I sigh at the sight of Chell eating her spaghetti like a bird would a worm, slurping it down by the bunch. Next to her, I see a Tepig eating through its plate of fish sticks with equal, if not more ferocity than Chell, and a Lilipup taking small bites out of its plate of Sitrus Berries. "So, I'll assume that this is the rest of your team?" In response to this, the Tepig stops to puff out its chest and breathe a small plume of fire, grinning at me. "You betcha! I'm Tepig, and this is Lilipup! I'm the main powerhouse of the team around here." I raise an eyebrow at the sight, slightly amused by the little display of confidence.

"Well, I'm your Trainer's bro. Nice to meet ya, Tepig." I hold a fist out to him, to which he immediately bumps with his front hoof. Lilipup doesn't say much, still munching on the berries with a neutral expression. "So, sis, how'd you catch Lilipup anyhow?" The next half an hour of dinner were spent talking in between taking bites of food, brother and sister catching up for a while, making up for lost time as we gave each other the rundown of our encounters so far, with a few puns made in the process.

Having finished with our food, we both get up from the table, walking off to the elevator with our Pokemon in tow. "I'm heading off to bed now, brother. I wish you the best of luck to you on the rest of your journey!" Yupia says as she leaves the elevator to get to her room. "Me too, sis. Me too." I wave goodbye as the elevator doors close, taking me up to my floor.

Opening the door to my room, I place Alita and Chell onto the bed as I hang up my hoodie, leaving me in only my long sleeved clothes and sports pants. "Man, I'm beat. Hey girls, anywhere you wanna sleep on this bed?" Chell quickly steals the spot to the right of the bed, nuzzling her head into it. "I see someone's already chosen." I smirk, tickling her sides slightly, getting her to giggle and push my hand away. "Stop it, Mister Jay! I'm tired!" Moving my hand away, I look over to Alita. "How about you, Ali?" I ask the bird. Upon not hearing an answer, I move her over to the left side of the pillow, letting her roost there. She looks shocked by the sudden pick-me-up, but quickly gets over it and rests her head on her good wing, looking away from me.

"Goodnight, team." I utter as I switch off the light, plunging the world around us into total darkness. "Goodnight, Mister Jay." Chell yawns. I take off my Xtranceiver from my ear and place it onto the nightstand, plugging it into the charger I set up earlier. The darkness beckoning me, I quickly lose consciousness as I drift off to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

[Jay]

I wake up after a few hours, unable to properly sleep the night away. Finding myself looking up at the ceiling of the hotel room, I give a sigh as I rub my thumb and index finger against the bridge of my nose, thinking back to the recurring nightmares that I've been having for a while. They always play out the exact same way, with my sister fading away into nothingness right before my eyes as an evil laughter sounds.

The worst part about the dream? There was nothing I could do about it. The feeling of being helpless to stop the event really haunts me, even today. Lifting a hand to rub my eyes, I feel more wetness than there would be originally. I cried too? Geez, I feel like a kid…

I roll over to the left, trying to get back to sleep, my gaze falling onto Alita. She's not asleep, either. She's looking away from me, staring out the window again. I poke her lightly, causing her to gasp and speak in her native tongue. Heh. She sounds shocked. "Wait a sec." I hold up a hand, placing my Xtranceiver in my ear and turning it on. "Okay, now I can understand you." I give her the okay.

"You're awake?" She asks, sounding less surprised as the initial shock wears off. "Yeah. Couldn't sleep cause of the nightmare I had. You?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Her eyes narrow. "You wouldn't be able to help me, anyway." She replies with a little spite. "Alright, then." I shrug, lying back down and staring at the ceiling. "But if you need anything, let me know." As I place my hands under my head, I hear her utter a 'why?' shortly after.

"Why what?" I ask, rolling over to look at her. "Why are you so nice to me?" She asks. "I hurt you, shot insults at you and refused to even look at you, but you still gave me what I wanted, and cared for me! Even when you were attacked by those other humans and got hurt, you apologized to us! Even now, you still offered your help! Why!?" She started crying, tears rolling down both sides of her face.

I quickly pulled her into a hug, being mindful of her wing. "Why?" She chokes, still sobbing slightly. "Why don't you hate me?" Stroking her back gently, I look her in the eyes. "What's there to hate about you? Right now, I see you as someone that needs protecting, and I intend to do so, whatever it takes." Her sobs aren't as loud now, now just reduced to sniffling.

"What happened before I showed up and, you know, messed you up? From what I can tell, it's not natural for your kind to travel alone." I ask, seeing her hesitate and freeze up a little at the question. "It's okay if you don't wanna talk about it." "No, it's okay." She sighs, and settles down before speaking again. "I was flying with the group as usual, until we ran into some humans that had it out for us." She began. Oh, no. I can already see where this is heading… "They started sending their Pokemon after us and one by one I saw my friends and family get…get…" She chokes and sobs as she starts tearing up again, her cries getting her another free hug from me. "It's okay. Shh…Shh…" I comfort her as she continues to cry, tears falling freely from her eyes.

"Thanks for listening to me. I really needed to get that off my chest." She manages to speak after a few minutes of the waterworks, still sniffling slightly. "No prob, Ali." I reply. "Hey, since you really don't have anywhere to really go to, how about you hang with me and Chell for a bit?" I suggest, letting the information sink in for a little while.

"Wait, really? I don't want to slow you down or anything." She replies, rather disbelieving of my decision. "Slow us down? Nah. If anything, you'd be a huge help to us. As the old saying goes, there's safety in numbers." I reassure her. "Besides, birds of a feather need to stick together, am I right? " I add, giving her the finger guns.

She rolls her eyes at the terrible joke despite herself. "You just had to go there, did you?" She sighs, the corners of her beak turning upwards against her will. "Of course I did! Puns are good for any situation, no matter how beak." I chuckle. "Besides, I can see you smiling, you know." She pokes me with her peak. "I am not smiling, idiot!" She retorts, jokingly attacking me over and over with her good wing. "Hey, cut it out!" I laugh as I futilely put up my arm an attempt to shield myself from the brutal wing slapping.

Soon enough, she tires herself out, settling down against me as we both get tired due to the lack of sleep. "Goodnight, Ali." I sigh, pulling her a little closer to my chest. "Goodnight, Jay." She softly replies as I close my eyes.

[This is the time for a timeskip! Real timely of me, don't you think?]

I am rather abruptly woken up by the weight of something small and furry jumping up and down on my chest. Squinting my eyes to look at the offending bouncer, I see Chell's eyes staring into mine. "Ugh…Chell, stop it…" I groan, lifting her off my chest and putting her to the side. "I'm trying to get some shut eye here…"

She didn't give up, though. A few moments later, I feel myself being rolled onto my back again and being jumped on. "Quit it, Chell…" I mumble as I rub my eyes and stretch, putting on my Xtranceiver. "No way! Get up, Mister Jay! I wanna do something!" She giggles, still jumping on my chest. "Alright, fine. " I grunt, getting up and popping my back, Chell jumping off as I get up. "You wanna do something? I'll do something alright! Feel the unparalleled wrath of my special attack!" I growl, pinning her down onto the bed and tickling her into submission. "Muahahah! Feel my wrath!" I cackle, reaching under her arms and continuing my attack on her exposed armpits. "Stahahahahap! Cut it out! Nooo!" She begs, laughing all the while.

Meanwhile, a certain bird stirs, woken by the sudden outburst of laughter. "Mmm…hmm?" She groans, the sunlight temporarily blinding her from witnessing the spectacle happening right in front of her. "Finally woken up, I see. So, you feeling okay Ali?" I ask her, ceasing my tickle attack upon my unfortunate victim.

"I was until you two woke me up. Geez, some people are still trying to sleep here." She groans. "Hey, don't blame me. Blame Chell, she woke me up and incurred my wrathful vengeance." Chell pokes me in the side with her shell in retaliation, sticking her tongue at me playfully. "Anyways, how's your wing doing? Nurse Joy said that you should be able to go about as normal today." Changing the subject quickly, I take off Alita's wing bandages. Taking a closer look at the wing, I see that the joints and the entire wing both look fine. "Meh, looks alright to me. How about we test that theory? Ali, take to the air for a bit."

A little hesitant at first, Alita eventually starts flapping her wings slowly. The initial fear that I had about the wing failing her again were instantly extinguished as she quickly took off, flying in the air with her eyes shut tight.

"Am I flying?" She asks, unsure of her current situation altitude-wise. "You tell me! Open your eyes and look around!" I chuckle, looking upwards at her. The moment she got her eyes open, she whooped for joy, flying around the ceiling area of the room. "Yes! I was getting real tired of being grounded!" She cheers as I smile and shake my head.

"If you're done celebrating, why don't we head on downstairs and grab some food to eat? I need some breakfast in the belly if I wanna go anywhere today." I state, my stomach rumbling loudly in agreement. "Food sounds good, Mister Jay!" Chell quickly agrees, jumping off the bed to get ready.

"I'll get ready to head out, too. Neither of us washed up yesterday." She remarks, me suddenly facepalming at the sudden realization of my mistake. "Whoops. Alright, you two get ready to go, alright? I'll be with you in a moment." I sigh. How the hell did I forget that? Man, still such a forgetful person. Slipping on my hoodie, I grab my backpack and place it onto the floor next to the door.

"I'm all set. Girls?" Rubbing my chin in thought, I hear the sounds of metal being hit and groaning coming from the bathroom. Moving in and taking a look, I see Alita fumbling with the tap, her wings sliding off the knobs without any friction whatsoever, while Chell's having a hard time figuring out the workings of the shower, not being tall enough to even reach the knobs on the wall.

Chuckling, I walk over to Alita first, seeing as she's closer to the door. "Let me help you with that." I try to stifle my laughter as I gently move her out of the sink and turn on the water, keeping the temperature to a consistent lukewarm. Plugging the bottom of the sink by pressing the button sink plug, I let that water fill up to around half of the total height of the sink. "There. That should be good enough." I gesture to the small bird still staring at me in amazement of the level of ease I had used to operate the thing. After shaking off the amazement, she jumps in, cooing in delight at the rather relaxing temperature I had set the water to.

Moving over to help Chell, I lift her up, out of the shower/bathtub area and into the sink with Alita. Both Pokemon let out a yelp of shock as they see the other enter the bathing area with them, not really expecting me to do that. "I don't wanna share the bath with her!" Chell protests, Alita following suit. "Me neither! It's weird!" Alita agrees almost instantly. "Well, neither of you can operate the shower just yet, so you're going to have to share for now. Besides, you're both girls. There shouldn't be much of a problem." I retort, gently but firmly shooting down their argument the moment it took off.

Reluctant at first, Chell agrees to the arrangements. "Fine…" She mumbles, grumbling with her arms crossed. Sighing but not pressing the argument further, Alita turns away to do what most birds do: ruffle their feathers in the water to get the dirt out of them. However, what she didn't account for was the other occupant of the sink. Chell was oblivious at first, but was quickly occupied by something other than the washing of herself. Water, and a rather large amount of it, splashes onto her from the side, the culprit none other than the small bird washing herself.

"Hey! Cut that out!" Chell snorts, spitting out some water. "What are you going to do about it, hmm?" Alita shoots back, raising an eyebrow in a challenging manner. "I'll show you what I can do!" Chell growls in mock anger, using her paws to splash water onto Alita. "Take that! And that!" Chell giggles, relentlessly assaulting the Pidove with water. "You want a fight? You got it!" Alita smirks, using a wing to block Chell's attacks while using the other wing to splash water back in her direction.

Seeing those two mess around in the water really reminds me of taking care of small children. It's a really nice feeling…Except children can't kill you with powerful UMPs (Unexplained Mysterious Powers. If you don't know, that's the term most people use to explain the powers Pokemon use.). Absentmindedly walking out of the bathroom to leave those two to their business, I walk into the living area and look around.

Eventually setting my gaze onto the clock, I find the time to be around eight fifteen in the morning. Shit, I'm late for my morning coffee. "Hey girls! Ready to go now? I ask, peeking into the bathroom again. This time, I see Chell and Alita deciding to stay out of the water, looking at me sheepishly. "What happened this time?" I ask, both of them looking like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"Well, we didn't exactly take care of business yesterday, so we…" Chell trails off, Alita looking away in an awkward fashion while she rubs the back of her head. Sighing, I immediately catch on to what they were implying. Yep. They took a piss in the sink…

After a quick explanation of how toilets work and a quick shower for the both of them later, we stand in the lift of the elevator, Alita perched on my shoulder, moving on down to the dining hall to partake in breakfast. Moving past the staff at the reception and grabbing a table to sit down in, I gesture over to the tables of food placed on the larger tables. "Same rules as yesterday. Take whatever you want from these tables." As Chell dashes off, I stand up, Alita still perched on my shoulder. "You not going to use your healed wings, Ali?" I ask, nudging her playfully with my hand.

"I'm too tired to do that. Besides, can't really hold a plate and get food with these." She uses her beak to point to her wings, flapping them for a little more emphasis. "Alrighty then, Ali. Where to?" I ask, walking over to the drink machines and pouring myself a cup of hot, steaming coffee and taking a sip.

"To where the berries are! I want another bowl of berries with some extra Cheri Berries, right now!" She replies. "Alright then, Ali. Let's wing it and head on over to the berries section, shall we?" She groans at the newly concocted pun. "You just had to, didn't you?" She slaps me over the back of my head with her wing as she says so, rolling her eyes with a small smile. "Heh, worth it." I smirk back, walking over to the salad bar.

After ordering another fresh salad for her and picking up some bacon and eggs for me, I walk back to the table and see Chell snacking on some bacon, not noticing me sit down next to her. Upon poking her small head, she finally catches wind of my presence, turning to me with her mouth full. "You have to try this, Mister Jay! Sooo good!" She licks her lips as she start eating again, causing me to shake my head in amusement at the cute little furball.

Placing down the salad bowl, I take a sip of coffee, looking outside as we eat, Alita now diverting her full attention to the salad she's eating. It's a real nice day out today. Nothing could go wrong…


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

[Jay]

As I finish up the last of my bacon and eggs, Chell having long since finished with her portion, and Alita working on the last bites of hers, I put down my fork and pick up my cup of coffee, taking another sip. "Ah, that's nice." I sigh, the warm coffee sliding down my throat and settling in my stomach.

Looking over at Alita's near-finished plate, I slowly grow a small smirk, an idea forming in my head. Using my hand, I slowly reach over and attempt to sneak a piece of Cheri Berry from under her nose-or beak, whatever you prefer.

Unfortunately, my attempt at theft doesn't go unnoticed. "Hey! Give that back!" Alita, now fully aware of my actions, quickly pecks the piece of Cheri Berry out of my hand, gulping it down in a flash. "Oh come on, Ali. Just one?" I plead, slowly inching my hand back towards the bowl again, seeing some pieces of berry salad left.

"No! Get your own, idiot!" She squawks, slapping my hand with her wing, causing me to retract my hand in mock pain. "Ow! That hurt my feelings!" I whine, faking anger and crossing my arms. Chell giggles, finding the little fiasco I just pulled rather amusing. Alita doesn't laugh at all, but her smile indicates that she also found that stunt hilarious. Satisfied with my work, I take another sip of my coffee, taking in the bitter flavor.

"I have found you, Brother!" The voice of my sister sounds throughout the dining hall as she picks me up into her usual habit of a bone-crushing hug, pulling me right off the chair. Luckily for me, I placed my coffee mug down onto the table before she came in and gave me that pick-me-up. Wait a second. Pick-me-up...I got it!

"Hey sis." I greet her, trying to hide my grin. "Yes brother?" She asks, her smile indicting that she's pretty happy to see me. "I don't really feel down right now, so I-"

"Jay, no!" My sister berates, immediately figuring out where this was going. "Really didn't-" I continue, paying her no mind. "Jay, I will harm you…" Yupia glares daggers at me, staring me down and causing me to shrink under her gaze a little. "Need the pick-me-up!" I snicker, causing her to drop me immediately. "Oh my god Jay, why!?" She groans as I try to stifle my laughter, Chell doing the same. Yupia's team of Tepig and Lilipup both snicker a little at the joke and at the reaction of their trainer, while Alita just rolls her eyes.

"That terrible joke aside, how are you faring, brother? Are you and your team okay?" Yupia asks, showing concern as she looks toward our Pokemon, who have begun conversing between themselves. "Meh, we pulled out okay. I got my arm sewn up and Alita got her wing healed right on schedule." I reply, looking over to the conversing Pokemon along with my sister. I can only make out bits and pieces of their little chat, but from what I can tell, they're sharing stories of their adventures so far.

"Ya know, the only thing the doctors couldn't patch up was my pride, but they don't take mental injuries sew seriously." I joke, causing her to groan and roll her eyes. "And I thought this would be a good time to travel…" She grumbles with her arms crossed. "Heh, water-ver do you mean, sis? It's always a good time to wing it and travel around." I chuckle, further fueling her frustration. "Jay! Stop ruining my journey with your puns!" She shouts, causing my mirth to only increase further while I give her the finger guns and the raised eyebrows.

Slurping down the last of my coffee, I put down the coffee mug and slip on my backpack again. "So, wanna head outside? I'm going to train up my team on the next route before I head on over to the gym." I ask, pointing outside and beckoning for my team to follow. "That sounds like a great idea, brother! I'll go call my team too!" She instantly agrees to my decision, calling for her team to join us outside. "Come along, you two! Let us be off now!" Hoisting Chell off the table and letting Alita land on my shoulder, we walk out of the dining hall and step into the elevator, letting it take us down to the first floor.

Once we were inside, I decided to incur Yupia's wrath again. "Hey sis, do you know why elevators are really good at cheering you up? Cause they lift your spirits!" "JAY!"

A few bad puns and a conk on the head later, we managed to step outside of the Pokemon center. I take this opportunity to look around and figure out our next course of action. "Hmm, where to now…" I mumble as I consider my options. "What's happening over there, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, tugging on my pant leg. Looking over to where she's pointing at, I can see a small crowd gathered at the town square, listening to a group of people, around ten-wait, no-eleven strong, counting in the guy with the beard giving the speech. They all have outfits with a shield symbol on their chests, complete with the classic chain mail hood, robe and front skirt of medieval knights, minus the armor. It's like their wardrobe was designed by a child. They look absolutely ridiculous, save for the P on their shield symbol. That looks cool.

We weren't around to hear the whole speech, as we had shown up halfway through the event. From what we managed to hear, though, it seems that this organization of sorts are really biased, showing rather large amounts of disdain towards the idea of Pokemon 'coexisting' with trainers. Apparently, the very idea of Pokemon being ordered around by trainers and shoved into small spaces seems to be rather inhumane to them. That I get, but freeing all Pokemon into the wild? What about those that don't want to leave their trainers' side?

After the speech, they dispersed quickly, packing up their banners that they had conveniently set up and making haste to leave the immediate vicinity. The crowd that had gathered to listen quickly dispersed following the end of the speech, leaving us to ponder on what they had said.

My sister seemed slightly confused as to why the group had said those things as well. "I understand their point of view, but why do those people think making everyone give up their Pokemon is a good idea? There are Pokemon that do appreciate the company of their trainers, after all." I nod my head in agreement. "I hear ya, sis. Some Pokemon really do like their trainers back, no matter how many people think of them as nothing more than tools."

The situation nowadays is that although people and Pokemon can coexist, some still act like they have some sort of superiority over Pokemon, the bastards. They think that they are above these wonderful creatures that share this world along with us, when Pokemon are sapient and intelligent like we are. As such, the World Health Organization, or WHO for short, have worked together with many government officials and the Pokemon Rights Organization, the PROs (get it?) to enact numerous laws protecting Pokemon and giving them the benefit of basic rights.

Those benefits don't come without repercussions, however. The laws also state that Pokephilia, the sexual relationship between a trainer and their Pokemon, is to be looked down on and is illegal. If a trainer is caught in the act, they are to be arrested on the spot, and all the Pokemon that the trainer owns are to be released, or put down if they refuse to leave their trainer. In most cases, the Pokemon are more than willing to assist their trainer in escaping the law, as the feeling was mutual for most Pokemon-Trainer relationships… Let's just say that there's a reason that the recorded Pokemon deaths by euthanization is in the thousands every month. However, the excuse of 'they're in heat and were lured into fucking their trainers against their will' is a really popular case closer, setting the trainer up for life in the slammer instantly.

Secrecy doesn't really work either, as the PROs have set up a law enforcement division called the Pokemon Rangers which patrol the surrounding natural and urban areas, making sure that 'offenders' are caught immediately. Rangers don't really have Pokemon of their own, instead retaining to the method of using a device known as a Capture Stylus to call on wild Pokemon to aid them in settling disputes. Think of the Capture Stylus as a temporary capture, where the Pokemon is immediately released into the wild afterwards.

What I think? As long as the people and Pokemon are both completely in agreement with the act in question, I see no problem in just settling down with your partner and fucking like rabbits to consummate your love for each other. Do whatever you want, I don't care. As long as nothing too serious happens to either partner, I don't have a problem with it. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for some individuals. Why do you think there's a law enacted to stop acts like these? Just so happens that the wrong kind of guy just ended up on the power end of political affairs.

"Mister Jay? Are you alright? You're spacing out again." Chell's voice snaps me out of my trance, causing me to look down at her. "Yeah, you idiot. Stop scaring us like that." Alita pokes me lightly with her beak, getting me to wince a little. "Sorry, girls. I was…thinking about stuff." I rub the back of my head sheepishly, my answer seeming to satisfy them for now. "What kind of stuff?" Chell pipes up. "Nothing important, kiddo." I tell her.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice that your Pokemon aren't in their Pokeballs." A voice suddenly sounds behind our group, causing me to jump a little in surprise. "Geez, man. Don't scare me like that." Getting a good look at the stranger in question, I instantly notice his white attire. From his cap to his turtleneck shirt, the only non-white articles of clothing I can see are his light brown colored pants and his black undershirt, bits of it showing from under his turtleneck.

Yupia, seemingly unfazed by all this, quickly addresses the newcomer. "Why hello there, random person! I'm Yupia! What's your name?" She smiles while holding a hand out for him to shake, the person returning the friendly gesture with a returned handshake. "You may call me N." He calmly says, unaffected whatsoever by her rather upfront gesture. "You intrigue me. You seem to get along with your Pokemon rather well, and they seem to like you back." He compliments me, that small smile never leaving his lips.

"Uh, thanks I guess." I shrug. But before I could say anything else, he speaks up again. "Might I ask, what is the goal of this journey you are to embark on?" Yupia, of course, answers that question in a flash. "Why, to become a part of the National Guard, of course! I need to fulfill some qualifications to sign up for the occupation, and this journey will help me to do so!" Yep, my cool sister is really obsessed about the whole joining the guard thing. Heck, that's the only reason she signed up for this in the first place. That, and to help me get some exercise done. She still thinks that I'm far too lazy for my own good.

Falling asleep at your post isn't being lazy, okay!? I do my job…sometimes.

"I see. But how many Pokemon will you capture to reach those goals? Will those Pokemon be truly free?" He asks. Then he turns to me again, his smile now a smirk. "Jay, was it? Let me see the passion you have for your Pokemon!" As soon as he says those words, he immediately takes a few steps back and unleashes his Pokemon. After the blinding flash of light subsides, I see a small, purple colored feline Pokemon in front of me. It makes a small purr, proceeding to lick its paw.

"A Purrloin, huh? Nice choice." I give a small nod his way, turning my head to look at my small winged partner. "Hey Ali, you feel like kicking some ass?" I ask, jerking a thumb towards the opposing cat. "Sounds good to me." Alita smirks back, hopping off my shoulder and landing on the ground, using her wings to slow her descent to ground level. "The first move is yours." N offers, extending his hand in a polite gesture. Not one to pass up on such an act of kindness, I immediately take the offensive. "Alita, use Quick Attack!" Alita quickly takes off from the ground and dashes forward at the command, moving erratically as she flies towards the Purrloin, intent on slamming right into the acquired target with her beak.

"Quick, Purrloin! Dodge and use Scratch!" N's command follows through to the Purrloin, the cat showing massively accurate agility as it leaps up and over Alita just as she rams into the spot where the cat was. The cat, now airborne, slashes downwards with its sharp claw, grazing Alita's back by a little. The attack didn't do too much damage to her, as she just whizzed by the claw before it did too much. "Be careful, brother! You're doing great!" Yupia encourages me from the side lines, fist raised in the air.

That doesn't stop the resulting pain felt by Alita, though. "Ow!" She hisses in pain as the claw hits home, leaving some small gashes on her back. "Hang in there, Alita!" Chell cheers Alita on, the encouragement getting her to stay focused. Welp, guess that's not going to work on that cat, so now I've gotta come up with something a little more...indirect.

"Alita! Shake it off and take to the sky! Use Air Cutter!" Alita, quickly using her wings to accelerate and gain altitude, increases the distance between her and the Purrloin. She stops climbing after a few seconds, quickly flapping her wings and unleashing a storm of small, razor sharp blades made entirely of air at her unfortunate target. Staring in awe at the sheer amount of blades, I couldn't help but gape at the sight.

"Dodge, Purrloin!" N calls, but to no avail. The area of effect covered by the launched blades was simply too large, peppering the area surrounding the Purrloin. Wincing, I stare at the pure destruction caused by that one attack, looking at the cloud of dust that got kicked up. "Yeesh, that's gotta hurt." I gulp, instantly feeling sympathetic towards the Purrloin. When the dust cleared, N immediately rushed over to the now knocked out Purrloin, the large amounts of cuts on its body proving to be too much for the small feline to handle.

Approaching N, I quickly apologized for the brutality of the attack. "I'm sorry, N. I really hadn't expected that to happen." I rubbed the back of my head guiltily as I said so. N, quick to brush off defeat, gave me a smile despite the horror that I had just inflicted on his Pokemon. "It's quite alright, Jay. However, it is important that you make sure that you treat your Pokemon well." He gives me a curt nod as he rushes off in the direction of the Pokemon Center with his Purrloin nestled in his arms.

Man, he took defeat like a champ! That kind of guy I can really look up to, unlike a certain rich ass butt crack… "Hey Alita, you still feeling okay?" I ask the bird once she lands back on my shoulder. "I'm fine. It's just a scratch, that's all." She nods back, wincing slightly as she does so. "Not to be rude, brother, but we haven't even gotten any training done! Let us be off, now!" My sister runs off again, heading towards the next route with haste.

"Wait for me, damn it!" I sigh, running after her at a brisk pace, Alita perched back on my shoulder. "Don't forget about me!" Chell giggles, running after the rest of us with a speed that I really didn't expect a Pokemon of her stature to have.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

[Jay]

Ah, the slightly cool atmosphere of Route 2. Nothing but small patches of grass, the tall trees and the occasional small clearing. The sun, in all its glory, shines down on the worn down path. With the occasional flock of birds flying overhead, it's a really nice day out today.

It's quite a shame, though, that I can't enjoy the perfect conditions of the environment around me. I'm a little busy chasing after my sister right now. She's all too eager to have a sibling spar right now, even though my Pidove just took a freaking claw to the back.

Speaking of Alita, she seems to be fine right now. Even with a scratch on her back, she seems to be taking it just fine. That still looks like it hurts, though.

"Ha ha! This clearing seems adequate for our training, brother!" Yupia declares, standing in a decently sized clearing, larger than the ones that we just ran by. "That's…whew…great, sis…" I wheeze, the early morning run not sitting well with my legs. I don't really work out that much, okay? Besides, that was a fifteen minute, non-stop run to and from the areas along the route.

Walking over to one side of the clearing, Yupia takes out a Pokeball and strikes a pose with it. "We shall start our battle now! Any questions?" She smirks, raring to go. "Can I take a little break first, sis? My will to fight is a little watered-down right now." My sister groans in frustration and anger at my pun, while Chell snorts a little. "Must you always make those terrible jokes, brother?" I shrug in response, finding her frustration hilarious as usual. "Meh. It's not like I have otter things that need doing, so why not laugh a little?" "Argh! Enough!" She throws her hands up in defeat, unable to stop the assault of comedy.

"Anyways, let's get started, shall we?" I suggest. "Excellent! Then I shall start off with this!" She presses the button on her Pokeball, allowing her first choice to pop out of it in a flash of white light. The light materializes into her Lilipup, the small canine looking battle ready. "Okay then. Ali! I need your help with this one." Alita quickly takes off from her perch atop my shoulder and descends onto the side of the clearing opposite to the dog.

"Lilipup, Bite that bird!" My sister commands, the puppy making quick leaps and bounds towards Alita, growling with its jaws open. She's taking a really strong offensive move, but she's forgetting something that gives Alita a clear advantage: her ability to fly. "Move up, Ali! Use Agility!" She quickly moves out of the way of the small dog, then focuses and allows small gusts of wind to surround her and dissipate shortly afterwards, further raising her speed.

The Lilipup gets a face full of dirt, but doesn't back down as it quickly rises back on its feet again, still looking as determined as before. Fine, then. If ya wanna play rough, then so be it. "Air Cutter!" Alita quickly flaps her wings in rapid succession, flinging multiple razor sharp blades of air towards the opposing Lilipup. By using Air Cutter, however, she doesn't notice that she's slowly losing altitude. "Dodge the attack!" Yupia commands, the Lilipup quickly moving out of the way of each blade with surprising speed. "What the…" I stop thinking for a moment, in awe at the speed of the damn thing. How the hell is it even moving that fast!?

My sister, however, takes ample advantage of the time I wasted. "Bite, Lilipup!" Alita, still focused on the dust she kicked up, realizes the attack a second too late, the puppy slamming into her and managing to bite her lower abdomen. Letting out a scream of pain, she quickly kicks off the puppy with her talons, but the bite mark on her proves to be a clear sign that the attack had hit home.

"Shit! Ali! Get a little higher up!" I shout, Alita quickly rising higher above the ground before the little dog manages to get another hit in. Since Air Cutter's not working at long range, we'll just have to wait until the little bastard gets in close.

"Ali! Fly close to the ground!" She jerks her head towards me at the strange request, her face one of disbelief. "What!? Do you want us to lose!?" She yells at me, not wanting to go with the idea at all. "Just trust me! Fly low and wait for my signal!" I tell her, trying to get her to comply. Reluctantly, she reduces her distance from the ground, giving me an uncertain look. "You better be right about this, idiot." She mutters.

"Giving up so soon, brother? Very well, then. Lilipup! Finish it with a Bite!" The small dog Pokemon rushes in, preparing to use its fangs to deliver the final blow. Yep, that's my sister. Strong in confidence, weaker in strategy. That's something that I can fully take advantage of. Wait for it, wait for it…Now! "Now, Ali! Use peck and follow up with Air Cutter!" A quick Peck to the snout instantly breaks the focus of the Lilipup, sending it stumbling backwards and temporarily dazing it. With the assistance of the Agility from earlier, Alita manages to fling quite a few air blades at the opposing Pokemon before its able to make a recovery.

"Come on, come on…" I mutter anxiously, staring at the Lilipup from the other side. That's gotta do it in, right? That's gotta be it… After a few decisive seconds of the puppy still standing there, it kneels over, with those telltale swirls in its eyes. "Good job, Ali!" I pump a fist into the air as I whoop in triumph over the small victory we just had.

Sighing, my sister withdraws the now fainted Lilipup into its Pokeball. "Well played, brother!" She gives me a thumbs up, which I gladly return in kind to her. "However, this fight isn't over yet! I still have one more Pokemon to use, and I don't intend to lose!" She declares, letting out her second Pokemon. The bright flash of light from the capsule reveals the Tepig I had met yesterday, letting out a snort and breathing a plume of fire from its nose.

"I'm ready to go, boss! Just gimme the word!" He grunts, determination in his eyes. Well, at least there's no doubt of a challenge coming our way. I'm just worried about Alita. That last fight left her all tuckered out, what with all those hits she took. I'm not too sure she can keep fighting like this. Besides, Chell has the type advantage here.

"Shall we continue?" Yupia asks, the pain of defeat having no effect on her whatsoever. Man, she's so cool…But I have to make sure of something else before we begin the fight.

"Alita! You feel like taking a break? Chell can take it from here." I jerk a thumb at the eager Oshawott, the events of the fight seeming to have lifted her fighting spirit. "Yeah, Ali! I can do this!" She waves at her from the sidelines, where she's looking after our stuff. She does take a little while to think, but eventually declines the offer afterwards. "No thanks, Jay. I can still fight." She nods at me in confirmation, to which I nod back.

"Okay then, if you say so…" I nod back, still having doubts about her choice. "You ready, sis? You get the first move!" I tell her as I give her the opening move. Since I don't think Ali's gonna last much longer, I've got to finish this real carefully. "Use Ember!" At her command, the small pig takes a deep breath, using its nose to shoot out a barrage of small embers.

Shit. That attack's got a big range on it, and seeing that Alita's too close to the attack to dodge… "Use Air Cutter to counter it!" Alita quickly starts to flap her wings in quick succession again, launching another wave of small, razor sharp blades to meet the barrage of embers. Unfortunately for her, the embers are far more numerous than her blades, and she gets hit by multiple. The Tepig isn't the luckiest one of the exchange either, as a few blades from Ali's barrage hit him in the barrel, leaving behind a few cuts. "Urgh!" The Tepig winces, the blades making their mark.

The embers turned out to be all she wrote as Alita falls to the ground, fainted. That's a loss for us, but I still have Chell to help us out here. "Alita!" I rush over to her as Chell and I both yell the same name in concern. Picking her up, I put her on top of my bag next to Chell, the sudden gesture causing her to open her eyes. "You did great out there, Ali. For now, just take it easy while we finish this up, alright?" She weakly nods, letting Chell give her a nod of determined ferocity as she gets up and perches herself on my bag.

With Chell stepping onto the playing field, I become more confident. She's got the type advantage, but Tepig do have rather outstanding levels of endurance. That's something we're gonna have to watch out for when those two butt heads. "You ready for this, Chell?" I ask, seeing her nod again in confirmation. "Tepig, are you prepared to end this?" Yupia does the same, the Tepig letting out another snort of approval. "You betcha, boss!" He grins, staring us down while we do the same.

This time, I'm getting the first attack. "Chell, use Water Gun!" Chell is quick to comply, blasting a jet of water from her mouth right towards the opposing Pokemon. "Tepig, use Tackle!" Yupia's command is quickly followed to the letter by her partner, Tepig taking the attack head on and slamming head first into Chell. Chell is being forced back as Tepig continues to push, his strength worryingly unyielding.

"Don't just stand there and take it! Use Razor Shell, now!" Chell, gritting her teeth, whips out the shell on her chest, a light blue water sword protruding from the opening. She takes a few swipes at the Tepig, making sure that he feels each attack of the water blade. "Take that! And this!" She shouts, slashing at the Tepig over and over again. "Get away from the attacks, Tepig!" Tepig manages to escape the vicious grasp of the water blade, but the rapid panting coming from Chell means that she's getting worn out, and fast.

Tepig doesn't seem to be on the winning side, either, as he's panting and sweating as well, the fight clearly having worn him down a bit. "Tepig, Ember!" Yupia calls as the pig snorts out a flurry of small sparks at Chell. "Take this!" He snorts, the blast of embers getting progressively more consistent.

"Chell! Block with Razor Shell!" Chell uses her shell blade to block the incoming assault, but does not make it out unscathed, as the area that the embers were pelting simply was too massive. She's slowly getting chipped by those attacks. There's gotta be something I can do to stop this! Think, Jay, think… "That's it!" I click my fingers as an idea sprouts in my head.

"Tepig, use Ember again!" Yupia commands. "On it!" Tepig quickly breathes in and unleashes another hailstorm of embers. "Chell, Water Gun! Hit as many of those flames as you can!" Chell quickly uses her attack to hit the embers, quickly creating a cloud of steam which obscures her from the view of her opponent, causing the Tepig to look at the generated steam cloud in confusion. "What the hell?"

I can't see much past the steam, but Tepig's confusion proves that my plan worked. "Quickly, Chell! Use Razor Shell while the steam's still up!" With a quick flash of blue light and a cry of pain, the area within the smoke goes quiet. "Tepig!" My sister's voice sounds from the other side of the mist, not sure of the situation within. I'm pretty nervous myself, hoping that Chell made the final blow.

As the mist quickly clears out, I notice two things. One, is that Chell's standing up, looking really tired but otherwise not roughe dup too badly. The second thing is that Tepig is lying on his barrel, passed out.

"You did it, Chell!" I chuckle, running over and scooping her up, nuzzling her cheek. "I did?" Looking around and seeing her knocked out opponent being scooped up by my sister, she lets out a cry of happiness. "I did it, Mister Jay! I did it!" She giggles. "You and Ali did it, kiddo. You two sure did." I grin, poking her nose playfully while she tries to push my hand away. "Cut it out, Mister Jay!" She pants, still a little beat by the entire ordeal.

"Well done, brother. I have been defeated." Yupia walks up to me, a slightly sad smile on her face as she congratulates me on my victory. "Nah, it's alright, sis. You're pretty tough yourself. Just keep on working towards your goal, and I know you'll make it into the National Guard soon enough." I pat her on the back, reaching for our stuff that we left on the sidelines, a certain bird waiting on us to hurry and get going.

"Took you long enough, idiot." Alita smirks at me, me smirking back. "Yeah, whatever Ali." I pick her up and tuck her into my hoodie, next to a snoring Chell. Seeing her like that, I sigh, "Welp, looks like someone's already gotten a head start to Dreamland. Come on, sis. Let's go get our teams healed up, shall we?" Picking up her bags and holding Tepig in her clutches, she quickly agrees. "But of course, brother! To continue our journey, we need to have a healthy team that's ready to battle! To the Pokemon Center!" She declares, running off towards the entrance to Accumula Town.

"Hey, wait for me, damn it!" Groaning in mock frustration, I leg it after her, grinning all the way, Alita doing the same as Chell snores away.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

[Jay]

"Just make sure that you pay more attention to your Pokemon, young man. They aren't as durable as you think, you know." I sigh as the almost motherly lecture of Nurse Joy assaults my ears with the intent to kill, the berating really annoying me.

"Okay, okay, okay, Doc. I'll try to take better care of my team, alright?" I reply, trying my best to stave off the chewing out I'm getting. Nurse Joy gives a sigh at my response, shaking her head. "You'd better, Jay. Or else-" She doesn't get to finish, as she sees me already sneaking my way out the door to her office. "Kaythanksbye!" I quickly spit out, frantically running out the door towards where my team was waiting for me to finish up.

"Hey! I'm not done with-" Nurse Joy groans as the door quickly slams shut, pinching the bridge of her nose. "New trainers. Always so impatient." Sprinting towards the main hall of the Pokemon Center as fast as my legs would carry me, I quickly see the two members of my team sitting on a bench to the side, waiting for me. My sister, of course, had left early, saying that she would meet up with me later along the way. "Hiya, Mister Jay!" Chell is quick to greet me, waving me over with her paw and letting me take a seat next to my things and the two Pokemon.

"Heya, kid. I see you've been taking good care of my stuff, eh?" I chuckle at her rather chipper greeting, slipping on my hoodie and backpack. "I sure did! Did you see the way we fought just now? I sliced through that Tepig easy, and Alita took that Lilipup out like it was nothing!" I nod in agreement, rubbing her head and messing up her fur while she giggles. "You two fought pretty well out there, I must admit." Sure, there was room for improvement back there, but nobody's ever perfect.

"But, let's not forget who gave out the orders, right?" Alita chimes in, quickly reassuring me that my efforts did not end up forgotten. Chell stands there a bit confused for a while, but quickly figures out what Alita was talking about. "That's right! I thought I was finished with that last attack, but you somehow figured out how to turn it around and help me win! That was pretty amazing, Mister Jay!" Her compliment catches me off guard, causing me to turn a little red in embarrassment.

"Geez, kiddo. You're really flattering me over here…" I chuckle, rubbing the back of my head at the praise. "You could use some work, but you did alright." Alita, now perched on my shoulder again, puts her two cents into the matter.

"Hey! You two could use some training too, you know." I retort, getting Alita to smirk back at me as Chell pushes herself off the bench and onto the floor. "Okay, then. Everyone ready to go?" I ask, getting all agreements and no objections in reply. "Let's get going, then. Off to more adventure, girls!" I laugh, walking out of the Pokemon Center with a fist in the air, Alita still perched on my shoulder while Chell walks after me, with everyone else in the Pokemon Center at the time staring at me weird. Did I care? Nah, too lazy for that.

Once we were a little ways into the forest trail of Route 2, the sun high in the sky, the three of us are casually walking along the road, striking up bits and pieces of idle conversation while we walk. Although we do see quite a bit of things along the way, most of our talks end up revolving around the trainers we keep on meeting in the woods. Like seriously, how many little kids come around here to train!? And why are all of them sticking around on the same path waiting for someone to walk on by!?

So far, we've run into two kids, each with a single Pokemon under their belts. Not that that's a bad thing, though. Alita and Chell are just plowing their way through the competition as it stands right now, getting a good workout in the process. Alita's managed to get some practice with her Air Cutter attack in, as the kid's Lilipup we just laid a smack down on was a little too fast for her initially. Chell on the other hand, has managed to squeeze in some practice on her Razor Shell and Water Gun attacks, having had to use both moves in junction to slow down and finish off the Purrloin the other kid had.

So, as of right now, pretty much a normal day in the Routes of Unova. I'm just listening in to Chell's talk with Ali right now, their battles still fresh in their minds. "And you were flapping your wings really fast and the blades were like 'shing' and the Lilipup just got knocked out fast!" Chell rants, still amazed at the moves that Alita pulled off. "You did pretty good too. You using Water Gun, and following up with Razor Shell to slow down that cat enough to get a hit in was a nice move." Hearing Alita's reply, I think that she was pretty impressed by Chell's moves as well.

Suddenly, I hear a third voice cut into their conversation. "Hey, you! You better get ready, 'cause I'm gonna beat you!" A kid's voice, and taking a look at the little tyke, I think he's not that old, either. Sighing, I look to my team. "So, which one of you wanna duke it out this time?" I ask, jerking a thumb towards the third over eager youngster we've encountered today.

"Pick me! Pick me! I wanna fight this guy!" Chell quickly interjects before Ali could butt in. Doing the bird equivalent of a shrug, which is basically the slight raising and lowering of her wings, Alita shows that she doesn't really care of she fights or not. This makes picking a partner for the fight a lot easier. "Okay then, Chell. You're up!"

Quickly following the command, Chell runs up and takes a stand right in front of me, striking a battle pose. "You got it, Mister Jay!" She smirks with confidence, already looking the part of a battle ready partner. "Ugh, finally! Let's go, Purrloin!" The opposing kid, just as impatient as the last three, groans as he sends out his Pokemon, the feline in question purring and licking its paw.

"Why'd you keep your entire team outside of their balls, anyhow? Isn't it easier for you to keep your team inside their Pokeballs?" The kid asks, showing some genuine curiosity. "Why don't we save the questions for after the fight? I'll tell you later." I reply, letting him have the first move. "Go, Purrloin! Use Tackle!" The Purrloin rushes forward, barely kicking up any dust from the path while sprinting towards Chell at a brisk pace. The kid's got a pretty strong cat, but N's Purrloin was by far faster than this.

I sigh in empathy for the kid. He'll learn to not use such basic tactics one day. But for now, he's gotta learn his lesson the hard way… "Chell, dodge and use Water Gun, and follow up with Razor Shell." I calmly command her. Chell, quickly evading the attack, follows up with a small, but powerful jet of water. The blast quickly causes the opposing cat to stumble, taken aback by the speed and the ferocity of the attack. The Purrloin's staggering only lasted for a few seconds, but Chell makes good use of those moments of weakness. Quickly charging towards the cat head on, she raises her scalchop, the blade from the shell glowing a brilliant blue as she slices downwards onto the weakened and dazed cat.

The force of the blow, combined with the previous Water Gun proved to be too much for the Purrloin to take, the cat quickly collapsing with those swirls in its eyes. As Chell runs back towards me, I give her a hand for her to high five. She doesn't really get the idea of a high five, though. "What are you doing, Mister Jay?" She asks. I mentally face palm in the realization that I haven't told her about the high five yet.

"Oh, this? This is a high five, the gesture of slapping your hand against mine like this." I demonstrate with both my hands, clapping them together so I looked like I was holding my hands together in prayer for a split second. How the hell could I have forgotten something as ridiculously important as the high five!? "Like this?" Chell tries it with me, my hand and her paw clapping together and making a small 'thump' sound. "That's it, kiddo. Man, you learn fast." I congratulate her, giving her another high five.

Walking over to the kid, I congratulate him for the match earlier. "You did great, kid." He looks down, not really acknowledging my comment. "We…lost." He says, slightly dejected about the loss he suffered. Kneeling down to his level, I sigh and address him and the Purrloin he's now cradling in his arms. "Listen, buddy. We all lose now and then, but don't forget what's so important about losing." This got him to look at me like I had just blown my own head off. "What are you talking about, mister? What's so great about losing?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "That you and your Pokemon can learn from losing a lot more than winning. Sure, winning is fun, but are you getting stronger by winning easily? And will the bond between you and your Pokemon improve, either?" He seems to get it now, smiling at his Purrloin and gently petting the small cat, the Purrloin mewing happily in tandem to his ministrations.

"Thanks for telling me that, Mister! Here's your money." He beams, handing me a nice little lump sum of 25 dollars. Around here, that kind of money could get you five Pokeballs or a Potion. For someone, a kid, no less, to give you this much for a simple win… "Woah, kid! You don't have to hand this much over to me if you don't want to." I gently push the money away, rejecting his payment. In official fights, money is optional to give to the winning trainer, except for Gym battles and Elite Four or Champion battles which give mandatory payment.

The kid shakes his head. "No way, mister! You beat me fair and square, so I'm going to give you what you deserve." His reply really surprises me, and I'd really like to help him out in return. But how do I help him…That's it! "Alright then, kid. I'll take your money, on one condition." I state, causing him to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh? What do you mean?" He asks. "That you and I trade phone numbers. From now on, you can call me whenever you'd like, and I'll help you any way I can." I smile back, the kid's smile growing a mite too wide for his face to hold.

"Wow! Really, Mister?" He gasps, the delight plain to hear from his voice. "Yep. Also, could you give me your name? I'd prefer if I can call you by something instead of kid." "The name's Joey, Mister!" He quickly blurts out. "And mine's Jay." We then proceed to shake on it, both sides walking away with a smile. He's got potential, and is more than capable of achieving great things. All he needs now is a push in the right direction, something I hope to give him.

Not long after our little conversation, Chell gets bored of playing lookout with Alita and tugs on the leg of my pants, quickly grabbing my attention. "Hmm? 'Sup, kid?" I ask, still looking at the road ahead. "Why'd you help that little kid back there, Mister Jay?" She asks, not sure for my reasoning behind the situation just now. "Sometimes people need help, kid. The problem now, is that there aren't many people to turn to when you need it." Looking over to her for a little while, I smile at her with a raised eyebrow. "That's why I try to help anyone that needs help whenever I can, to try and be a better person."

Alita nods her head in understanding, while Chell still seems confused. "Wouldn't helping everyone in need be a lot of work?" She inquires, not really getting my point of view. "But what you get in return is priceless, and that's all that matters." I answer back, only getting more confusion from her. "I don't get it, Mister Jay." She says after a while of thinking. Chuckling at her confusion, I reach down and pat her head. "You'll get it eventually, kiddo." I reassure her, messing up her head fur on purpose.

Shortly after the little conversation, I find myself playing I Spy with the two Pokemon, me messing up the rules every so often. "So, I Spy an item that's green, has a trunk, and leaves. What am I looking at?" I ask, just waiting for either Pokemon to give me an answer. "Umm…that tree?" Chell asks, pointing to a tree a few steps ahead of us. "I'm not guessing, Jay." Alita sighs, not having guessed for three turns now.

"Nope! I was looking at that sapling." I snicker, pointing towards a small, growing tree that was not too far away from us. "What!? But that's not even a fully grown tree!" Chell rages, while Alita sighs. Chell, being insanely gullible, has fallen for the 'the items all look the same' trick for the fifth time. "Guess you two were barking up the wrong tree, eh?" I snort, the pun cheering Chell up a little while Alita slaps me over the head with her wing. "You just had to make that pun, didn't you?" She deadpans. "Yes. That was totally worth it, by the way." I snicker, annoying her further.

"You'll pay for those puns one day, you idiot." She growls in mock anger, smirking at me. "Oh come on, Alita! There's no need to act so tree-ggered, you know." Chell chimes in, the pun initially catching me by surprise, but I soon join Chell in her laughter while Alita slaps me on the head with her wing again. "Now look what you've done! Chell's been infected with your bad jokes!" She groans, causing all three of us to laugh for a little while. Damn, Chell makes me so proud…

At that moment, I am immediately alerted to a peculiar growling noise, the sound coming from my shoulder which Ali is perched on. With that sound, a quick request follows. "Can we stop for some lunch?" Alita quickly blurts out, a slight red tint of blush appearing on her cheeks. Yep. I'm now definitely sure that was her stomach just now. Chuckling, I walk over to a tree and sit down under its shade, Chell following suit. "Sure thing, Ali. I'm pretty hungry myself, and we could use a break from fighting three kids in a row."

"I agree with that! I'm starving, and I wanna eat!" Chell quickly buts in, eager to have some lunch in her belly. I take off my backpack and my hoodie and pull out a couple of things: a small box of berries, and four sandwiches. Two of which consist of Basculin meat, and the other two consisting of Pidgey meat from Pudgey Pidgey Isle. The berry box I hand over to Alita, while I hand the Basculin Sandwiches over to Chell, who takes them without another second's worth of thought.

Alita and Chell are quick to dig in, the former doing so to silence her grumbling stomach, the latter simply because she's always hungry. Seriously, how can one little Pokemon eat that much!? Meanwhile, I just calmly take some ketchup from the pocket of my hoodie and pour it over the insides of my sandwich, closing it and taking a bite. Chewing slowly, I take my time and enjoy the taste of protein. Delicious stuff, meat is. The road ahead is pretty long, but for now I can take it slow.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

[Jay]

One thing that will always, and I mean always confuse me is the fact that something not even half my size can munch on the same amount of food way faster than I can. I'm not even halfway through my first sandwich, and Chell is already halfway through her second one! How the hell…no, I'm not even going to go into the possibilities of this. Alita is also seemingly distracted by her ridiculously large capacity to eat, now staring at Chell as if she's going to turn around and eat her up while she's at it.

"These are so good, Mister Jay!" Chell licks her lips, taking another large bite out of the fish sandwich. "Glad ya like 'em, kid. But try to slow down, will ya? You might just choke on what you're chewing." I chuckle while sweat dropping. "At the how fast she's eating, I'm surprised she hasn't choked to death already." Alita agrees with my statement, just watching the walking food vacuum go to town on the food unfortunate enough to land in her paws.

While we eat, however, I suddenly feel like something's watching us. Taking another bite of my meaty sandwich, I quickly shake off the feeling, dismissing it as the side effects of ketchup consumption. It's probably nothing too serious, right?

Unfortunately for me, fate just loves to dick around and flip you the bird every so often. And surprise, surprise, this just so happens to be one of those times. Suddenly, a purple blur dashes quickly out of the bushes, getting close to Chell and swiping the rest of her sandwich out of her paw once she wasn't looking. Alita tries to attack the intruder with a Peck attack, but the cat kicks up some dust into her eyes, temporarily blinding her. "Ack! You little…" Sounds like she's pretty angry at the intruder, too. The culprit quickly retreats into the bushes. "Hey! Give it back, thief!" Chell, having noticed the culprit in the act, quickly runs after the sandwich thief. "Wait, Chell! Don't..." I start, only to realize just who I was talking to.

Screw it. This is Chell we're talking about, after all. She's not going to give up on that sandwich so easily, anyways. I'm not that hungry, and the safety of my team counts as top priority, so… "C'mon, Ali! We've got to go after her!" I quickly take initiative, running off into the bushes where Chell entered. At first, I didn't really know where I was in relation to where Chell had run off to, but Alita quickly figures out which direction Chell ran off in. "Over there. I see some water running down the trunks of some trees in that direction." Alita points with her beak to the left of me, quickly flying off in that direction with me running after her. Clever girl, figuring out what Chell would have done to get her sandwich back.

Following the trail of water soaked tree trunks at a brisk pace, we soon find what we're looking for. Chell, who is still alive and well, is still trying to catch the thing that had dared to snatch her food from under her nose. She's still unleashing blast after blast of water at the opposing Pokemon-a Purrloin, to be precise-and she's not letting up. The Purrloin, however, is dodging the jets of water with amazing, almost godlike speed, elegantly weaving its way between the consistent attacks while using the tree branches to gain the higher ground.

"Hold still!" Chell shouts in frustration, still trying to hit her feline foe. The Purrloin, still holding the sandwich in its mouth, gives a sly smirk and shakes its paw, holding up a digit and swinging it from side to side to further taunt Chell. At this rate, she's not going to be able to catch it.

That's when I notice an opportunity. The cat's movements are fast, but quite predictable. From the way it's moving from tree to tree, it's trying to escape Chell's attacks by moving from left to right in a zigzag manner. Perfect for dodging if attacking Pokemon are trying to hit it, but if I predict the movement just right… "Alita! Use Air Cutter on that tree, now!" Looking at me incredulously but not questioning my gamble, Alita quickly fires a few blades at the tree. The sharp blades would have collided with the branches of the tree…if the Purrloin wasn't there to take the hit instead.

The Purrloin, almost completely focused on pissing the hell out of Chell, realizes that it had dug its own grave a second too late as the multiple small, razor sharp blades strike it hard. The Purrloin stumbles, losing balance and falling towards the ground head first at a dangerous speed. If it connects with the ground like that…

No. There's no fucking way I'm letting that happen, not this time. Running towards the falling cat, whose eyes are shut tight, I jump the last few meters, cradling the cat close to my chest and tucking my limbs into a ball just before gravity pulls me down to the ground, my position letting me roll to a stop a little ways ahead of my team.

Frantically looking at the cat and checking its pulse to find that it was relatively okay and that it was shaking frantically, I breathe a sigh of relief as the little feline slowly opens its eyes. It seems confused as to why it hasn't bitten the dust yet. Or maybe it's checking to see if it's already dead? I dunno…

"You alright, little buddy?" I ask, poking the still slightly shaking Purrloin to grab its attention. It looks up at me, acting quickly as it swipes at my face, its claw connecting with my left cheek and leaving behind a nasty wound. "Ow!" I hiss, clutching my face with one hand while taking the sandwich out of the cat's mouth with the other. The cat is quick to act as well, leaping out of my hoodie and running off in the direction opposite to that of my team.

"Mister Jay! Are you okay?" Chell asks, my team having already crossed the jumping distance that I had put between us. "Yeah, kiddo. I'm fine." I reassure her, ruffling her head and messing with her fur slightly. Standing up, I wince as I touch the mark that the cat had managed to leave on me. Yep, definitely going to feel that in the morning.

"Let's go and kick some Purrloin tail, Jay!" Alita looks quite pissed, looking at where the cat went with the same initial hate that she had when she looked at me. Chell looking like she pretty much agrees with the idea.

Shaking my head, I stop her before she manages to fly off. "Don't Ali. It's not worth the trouble." She just looks at me with a look of disbelief. "What!? But it has its back turned to us! This is the perfect time to-" She starts to argue, but once again I interject. "To do what? If we get ambushed out here by a large group of Pokemon, I'm pretty sure you two wouldn't last too long. Besides, you've already taken on a few other Pokemon earlier, so you aren't really in tip top shape." Alita starts to say something, but quickly realizes that she's on the losing side of the argument. Saying nothing, she perches herself on my shoulder again.

As I turn around to leave the forest area by following the still wet trail of trees, I am suddenly aware of something tugging on the leg of my pants again. Sighing, I look down to see Chell again. "Yeah, kiddo? What is it?" She points over to Alita, who looks quite dejected at the fact that she didn't get to fight the cat, then to the direction where the Purrloin had run off to.

"Listen, Chell. I care about the both of you, ya know? To let you two run after that Purrloin and get hurt because of my careless judgment, isn't what I'm supposed to do as your trainer." Chell frowns a little at my reply, shaking her head. "I'm fine, Mister Jay! I can still fight, and so can Alita." She retorts.

"Look, I made a promise to hold the well being and opinions of my team above all else, and I intend to keep it." I keep firm, not letting her get any emotional high ground on me. "Then listen to my opinion! Or else, I'm going to have to use my special attack." She stares at me, her eyebrows furrowing. "I'm going to stop you from trying to get yourself killed, and that's that." I shake my head, not wanting to get the team hurt too bad.

"Fine. I didn't want to have to do this…" Chell sighs, preparing something. There's no way that her special attack is something to scary, right? I could probably dodge it, or…

That was my last thought before I found myself face to face with the most dangerous weapon ever to have graced this side of the universe-the puppy dog look attack. Her large eyes, her trembling lips and her sad, begging expression was almost enough to end me right then and there, but it was the last thing that she did that made me cave in. In the cutest pleading voice imaginable, she lets out a 'please?', making sure to draw out the sound of the word.

Sighing, I relent, all mental defenses vaporizing in an instant. "Fine, we'll go after the cat." Alita looks at me and then to Chell, astonished at how Chell had managed to convince me to change my mind. Chell simply replies by giving Alita a thumbs up, smirking at her in triumph. "You just don't play fair, do you Chell?" I grumble, getting both girls to giggle at my misery. "No. No, I don't." She replies, sticking her tongue out at me playfully as she turns around and walks ahead. "It's not her fault you're so weak to begging looks, idiot." Alita smirks, leaving the perch of my shoulder and flying close behind Chell. "Wait for me!" I sigh, trailing after them.

Following the two eager Pokemon, I internally curse myself for being so weak. How the hell did I give in so easily!? I should just tell the team to turn around right now… I can't. I made a promise to listen to the opinions of my team, damn it. It's part of the oath I made as an official Pokemon trainer, and I'm not breaking it now.

We soon find ourselves face to face with some bushes leading to a clearing. Even from here, we could all hear the sounds of a fight going down, with insults being thrown and blows being exchanged. Alita and Chell quickly try and rush through, wanting to get a piece of the action, but I quickly stop them right in their tracks.

"Hold on a second. Why don't we take a peek and see what's going on first, eh? Better to have some idea of the situation than no idea at all." I suggest, the two quickly complying without much hesitation. Taking a look past the bushes, I can see the Purrloin from here. I can tell it's the same feline that we fought earlier because it's got those small cuts on its left side from earlier, when Ali managed to sneak in those hits.

However, it seems to be on the losing side of this fight. As far as I can tell, it's completely surrounded on all sides, by Patrat no less. The rodents are currently ganging up on the cat, using their slightly larger relative size to assert dominance over the Purrloin. They're using a combination of Tackle and Bite attacks to wear the feline down, although it just ends up dodging most of the assault anyways.

The Patrats' plan is slowly but surely bearing fruit. The Purrloin is now panting in exhaustion, sweat dripping from its small frame and blood leaking from the cuts on its side. Trying to take step forward, the feline finally gives in, sprawling onto the ground without any of the grace it had used to dodge Chell's previous attacks.

One of the Patrat stands over the fallen Pokemon, its back turned to me so I couldn't see what it was doing. He lifts a paw, the other Patrat backing down almost instantly the moment they see the gesture. He then barks an order, two of the Patrat holding the weakened cat up by its forelimbs. Seems like we've found the leader of this group. Wait a second, the way his tail's flattened like that…There's no way he could be the same one I accidentally stepped on, right?

As I ponder, I whisper to Chell and Alita. "When I whistle, you two attack the Patrat holding the cat down, while I deal with the leader of the group." Chell immediately interjects. "Why don't we just attack now?" She asks, paw already placed on her scalchop. "We've gotta wait until they've calmed down a little from their fight. If they attack us while they're still on edge, we won't win. But maybe, the element of surprise will give us the help we need." I reply, waiting on the pack of rodents' next move.

My attention is suddenly diverted to the actions of the leader, who's holding something in his paw, the Purrloin looking at it with anger etched into its facial expression. Since I'm slightly over to the left of the Patrat, and my team is right behind it, I can see that he's holding something bright red…and throbbing… Wait, is that his… He's going to make the Purrloin suck his…!

The pack leader uses his paw to grab its lower jaw and make the cat look into his eyes. "What's a cute little kitty like you doing here all alone in our turf? Don't you know there are rules to abide by?" He smirks. The cat responds by hissing and biting his hand, causing him to give a pained yelp. "Argh! You little bitch!" He growls, slapping the helpless cat with his paw. The cat now has a red mark on its cheek, but continues to glare at the pack leader.

"You better not bite what I'm putting in your mouth next, if you know what's good for you." He snarls, the cat's gaze on him unchanging. Just as he's about to shove his prick into its mouth, I whistle. The shrill noise catches every Pokemon in the area by surprise, my team and I grasping the moments of confusion to strike.

Alita swiftly Pecks the Patrat on the left, while Chell slices at the Patrat on the right with her scalchop. Meanwhile, I deliver a swift kick to the leader, sending him flying into the bushes in the opposite direction of where we came from. With the Patrat quickly coming to their senses and advancing, I quickly motion for my team to follow me and escape. "Girls, come on! We've gotta go!" I shout, using my free hand to make a 'follow me' signal. Looking back, I see that a few Patrat have already been knocked out, but Chell looks to be on the verge of fainting. She's got multiple bruises and cuts on her, and Alita's not looking too hot, either.

They're holding position a little too close to the Purrloin and each other, as a few Patrat have noticed. They start running in for a combined Bite, Chell and Alita both a little too occupied with other Patrat to notice. They just might faint after this, so I do the one thing I can do: take the hit for them. They notice the combined effort by the enemy a second too late, and by the look on their faces when I took the attacks for them shows that they weren't quite ready to see me jump in so willingly.

"Argh!" I don't even try to hide the pain I end up feeling because of my rash decision, the teeth of the Patrat digging into my flesh. Let me tell you one thing, the feeling of half a dozen sets of sharp teeth biting into you really hurts. I stand with my arms around the group, back turned to the Patrat as they relentlessly bite through the fabric of my shirt and into my back. Ignoring the burning pain as I shake the little bastards off me, I quickly pick up the three Pokemon and run as fast as my legs can carry me, not daring to look back as I weave my way through the forest, making sure to follow the trail of water soaked trees.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

[Jay]

Soon enough, I find the same path that we were walking on a while ago, along with the things that I had left behind. Quickly looking behind me, I see that the Patrat had given up trying to catch us, so I quickly sit down under the tree to catch my breath, letting the three Pokemon in my clutches down onto the ground and letting then breathe as well. That was dangerously close…

"Whew! That was a close one, eh girls?" I chuckle, wiping away some of the sweat that had collected on my brow. Looking down, I see both Chell and Alita with really guilty looks on their faces, both Pokemon suddenly taking a really big interest in the ground. The Purrloin is still unconscious, the rise and fall of its barrel the only indication that it's still alive and relatively fine.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling okay?" I ask, neither of them daring to look up at me. Noticing the injuries that they had sustained, I wince in understanding. "Yeesh, those are some nasty bruises, girls. Hold on, I'll get some Potions from my bag." I quickly fish out two bottles of purple liquid, spraying some on their respective wounds. "Hold still and brace yourselves, cause this might sting a little." I warn them as I spray onto all of their wounds, seeing them wince in pain. Other than that, they don't make much noise. They don't even try and talk to me.

When I finish tending to their injuries, I put the spray bottles away, tucking them into my bag to dispose of later. Luckily for me, my shirt wasn't completely torn to ribbons, as the sleeves and the lower part of the torso of my shirt are still completely intact. The only part of the shirt that sustained the damage was the upper part of the shirt's backside where the Patrat decided to bite me.

However, both members of my team do notice the obvious cuts and bites on my back. I had to turn around to place the empty bottles in the bag. , so the two Pokemon had a nice, clear view of the burning cuts on my back. "Mister Jay, you're hurt…" I turn around to address Chell, only to see her tearing up, Alita not far behind from letting loose the flow of tears. "Hmm? What's-" That's all I manage to say before Chell dashes forward, almost knocking me over with the force of the charge, crying into the fabric of my ruined shirt. Alita finds a spot on my shoulder instead, nuzzling gently against me and shedding a few tears herself.

"Whoa, kid! What's wrong, you two?" I ask, gently rubbing Chell's back while using my head to gently nuzzle Alita back. "Why'd you do it, Mister Jay!? Why!?" Chell cries into my chest, her tears soaking my chest now. "Do what?" I ask, still kind of confused by their actions.

"Why'd you take the hits for us, idiot!? You didn't have to do that!" Alita screams, shedding a few more tears and pecking me repeatedly on the side of my head. Not too hard, but they still hurt. Letting her peck me, her blows getting softer and softer until she too lets loose the waterworks, I sigh and gently resume nuzzling her as I continue to pet Chell's back.

"That's because I couldn't let you take that hit. You got hurt enough because of my bad decision, and I couldn't stand to let you two suffer any more than you had to. Sorry for this, girls." I reply, lifting Alita down and hugging them both close to my chest. "But you're hurt because of me! I'm so sorry, Mister Jay!" Chell sobs, looking at me with tear soaked eyes and clutching my chest tight, with no intention of letting me go. Alita says nothing this time around, crying softly into my chest as well.

"It's alright. I'll be just fine. There, there…" I soothe, their crying slowly stopping as I pick up the Purrloin, still unconscious and put it into my embrace with the two Pokemon. Then, grabbing my hoodie and stuffing it into my backpack, I hold the bag in my free hand as I slowly walk my way towards Striaton City. My bleeding back really stings now, reminding me that I need medical attention, and fast.

Walking into the city, I get lots and lots of stares. What can I say, it's really not everyday you'll see a bloodied trainer carrying three Pokemon in his arms. What a bloody surprise, heh. Walking into the Pokemon Center, I quickly catch the attention of the Nurse Joy working there, as she gasps and quickly rushes to my aid, putting her hand over her mouth at the sight of my cut covered back.

"Sir, I'll need you to put your Pokemon in their Pokeballs. They look pretty beaten up, and I'll need to put them on the TRAM for some healing." TRAM, which stands for Trans-Pokeball Regeneration Acceleration Machine, does exactly what the name says. The Pokemon are healed via the acceleration of their regenerative abilities through the work of the machine itself.

Chell and Alita both tense up for obvious reasons, not wanting to return to the confines of their Pokeballs. Noticing this, I quickly interject. "Can we use the RAMs instead? My Pokemon don't really like their Pokeballs." She nods in understanding. "Not a problem. Just follow me to the room where the machines are held, sir." She gestures with her hand and walks off towards the areas to the left of the counter, me following close behind.

"And here we are." She gestures over to the room with a moderate amount of machines in them, ranging in a variety of sizes from around the size of a small cabinet to roughly the size of a car. You could practically heal any kind of Pokemon in here without storing them in a Pokeball. Well, except Wailord, of course. There's no freaking way that something that gigantic is gonna even fit in this room…

She leads me and the group to four capsules of various sizes, three small and one human-sized. "Now, I'll need you and your team to step into these capsules here." I help Chell and Alita get into their respective capsules while I start to undress, showing off the rest of my scars. The healing can't effectively take place when clothing is present, so all items of clothing must be removed before the process. "Oh, my! When did you get those?" Nurse Joy quickly notices my intense scarring, taking a closer look at the remnants of wounds inflicted long ago. Luckily for me, the three Pokemon had already started their healing process by the time I had taken off my clothes, so they weren't around to see.

"Have you used a RAM before?" She asks me, as under normal conditions, every wound should disappear due to the acceleration of healing that the machine provides through quick replication and administration of cells that takes place in a breathable, sleep inducing, jelly like medium that fills the machine.

"Yes, I have. These scars don't fade away, though. I'm still trying to figure out the reason behind this, but I don't have the foggiest clue as to why these don't fade." I explain, the answer seemingly enough to satisfy her curiosity for now. "It's alright. Just step inside and the Daisy machine will take care of the damage." I step inside and lie down, as the machines are tilted at an angle to allow for comfort during the regeneration.

"Can I trust you to not let my team see these scars of mine? I can't let them know about these just yet." She nods at my request. "I'll make sure of that. Now, relax and take a deep breath." She encourages me as she closes the capsule with the press of a button, the device closing its double door mechanism and trapping me inside.

As blue liquid slowly fills the space that I'm in, I settle down for a nice, long nap.

Waking up and coughing out a mouthful of the now green liquid, I shield my eyes against the sudden light that floods into the capsule as the doors open again. Stepping out, I am helped by Nurse Joy to my pile of clothing that I had left to the side before.

As I reach for my pants, her voice catches my attention. "You've got a really nice body underneath those scars, you know." The little remark catching me off guard, I stutter, putting on my boxers before I slip on my pants. "Uh, thanks Doc. I'm a bit embarrassed that you'd just decide to sneak peeks at me in my most vulnerable state, ya know." I shoot back, quite flustered at the comment. "But it's true! You've also got a pretty nice looking soldier down there, too." She giggles as I instinctively try to cover up my seven and a half inch erection with my hands, even though I'm wearing pants right now.

Since the fluid increases blood flow throughout the body, the side effect would be an obvious erection, amongst other slight physical alterations, albeit being temporary. "So, where's my team at?" They did get ganged up on, but I'm pretty sure they aren't taking too long to heal up. "They're doing just fine. Aside from the bruises and the occasional cut or two, of course." She waves me over to the outside lounge area, handing me my bag as she does so. "Take a left once you're outside, then you should see them waiting for you in the lounge."

"Thanks for the info, Doc." I nod my head in thanks, putting my pack over my shoulders before asking her one last question. "Is there any chance that you'd have a room I could stay in for the night?"

A few more words exchanged and one purchase later, I find myself holding the key card to my rented room as I head on over to the lounge, seeing Chell and Alita waiting for me along with the Purrloin. The girls still aren't really willing to make nice with the cat that had literally thrown dirt into their faces, keeping their distance from it. The Purrloin, on the other hand, just licks its paw, ignoring the glares its being given right now.

"Hey, you two. Not really getting along, I see." I comment, walking over and taking a seat between the feline and my team. The Purrloin, surprisingly enough, hasn't left the Pokemon center yet. That's weird.

"I don't like her, Mister Jay." Chell huffs, pointing an accusing paw digit at the cat in question. "She took my scalchop while you were resting! Twice!" The feline smirks a little, obviously amused by the infuriation that Chell has expressed.

"I certainly did. And your reaction when you discovered that I had done it was the same each time. Absolutely priceless." She giggles, licking her paw. Another female? Geez, I really do have lady luck on my side today, huh? "Besides, you could have noticed before I managed to take your shell, you know." She adds, only angering Chell further. "Why, I oughta-" She fumes, only for me to stop her mid sentence.

"Just stop it, Chell. She's right." I start, Chell looking at me incredulously. "But, Mister Jay-" She retorts, but then I decide to finish my sentence. "It's entirely paw-sible to notice these things." I chuckle, Chell quickly joining in once she realized that I had made a pun. Alita groans, while the Purrloin just looks on, humored by my pun, no doubt, and confused as to what was happening.

"You're right, Mister Jay! That's a purr-fect solution!" Chell adds her pun to the mix, increasing our laughter and Alita's frustration. "Ugh, stop it you two!" She groans, a small smirk showing on her face. "Oh, and could you not take my Pokedex? I kinda need that." I smirk at the Purrloin, whose freezes for a moment and puts on a sheepish grin as I gently pry the device from her paws and place it my pocket.

"Looks like I've managed to cat-ch you in the act, kitty." I grin, Chell straight up laughing again while Alita just uses her wing to face palm. The Purrloin huffs in embarrassment. "You're not much fun, you know." She sticks her tongue out at me as I return the gesture in kind.

Using my elbows to prop my torso on my thighs, I turn to look at the cat. "So, why haven't you left yet? I haven't caught you, and you don't have to stay, so why aren't you leaving?" I ask, the question catching her off guard before she smiles. The gesture is straightforward enough, but her eyes show the want for something more.

"I wanted to express my thanks for saving me back there." She looks at me and sheepishly grins. "And I apologize for injuring you like that." I wave my hand dismissively. "Nah, its fine. But don't you want something else?" I ask, the feline tensing up immediately after I ask. "What makes you say that?" She looks at me like I just read her mind. "Look, when you take care of a little sister for years, you kinda pick up on a lot of things. So, what do you need?" I ask, her smile growing sad.

"I want to get stronger." She says after a little pause to think. This response catches all three of us off guard, Alita the first to speak up. "Why? From our fight just now, you're pretty freaking tough as it is. Your Sand Attack really hit home, to blind me like that." She replies. "Yeah! The way you dodged my Water Gun like that was really something else!" Chell adds, agreeing with Ali's statement.

"I want to get stronger, to get revenge." She speaks again, her tone taking on a darker note and her gaze growing colder, more distant. I recognize that look, because it's the look that I've seen many times before. "I want to get revenge on the Patrat gang that you encountered back there." She hisses at the mention of the group of rodents.

"What did they do?" I ask, rather curious of her motives. She pauses, then decides to answer. "That isn't important. I want to get stronger, but to do that effectively I'd have to find a trainer. I don't have family to help me due to…reasons." She pauses there, shaking a little. "But if I join a trainer, they'll just use me for their own selfish goals instead of helping me." She stops there as I nod my head in understanding. It's a sad story, really. She needs help, but there's no one to help her out.

"Thanks again for the assistance." She sighs, jumping off the bench to leave. That's when I decide to stop her. "Hold up, kit. What if I helped you get stronger?" She stops and turns her head at the offer, her face neutral. But her eyes tell a different story, brimming with uncertainty and hope. "But you'll just use me." Her eyes narrow and lose their glimmer, assuming this to be my ploy to capture her. "But Mister Jay! Why help her?" Chell asks, confused. "Yeah, idiot. She did hurt you just now, so why help her out?" Alita chimes in. "Remember what I said, kiddo? I'd help anyone that needs it." I reply, addressing her before facing the Purrloin again. "As soon as you get your revenge, you're free to go. I won't use you for selfish reasons, trainer's honor." I reassure her, her face telling me that she's still slightly unsure about this.

"I swear on my life that I won't use you for any selfish reasons whatsoever." I promise her, my gaze unchanging in seriousness. She turns around fully, thinking about it before smiling and walking back over, that hopeful gaze returning. "I accept your offer." I smile back, holding an empty Pokeball out in front of her. "This is just to make sure no one else captures you by accident while we train." My reassurance works, as she enters the ball and gets captured without resistance.

I quickly let her out of the ball, seeing her frantically look around before heaving a sigh of relief. "That was…rather uncomfortable" She remarks. "Good for you, then. You don'thave to go back in, ever." She looks at me, surprised at my words. "Are you serious?" She asks, her voice disbelieving. "Why do you think these two are out of their Pokeballs, even though we aren't in a fight?" I ask back, my reasoning pretty sound. She quickly realizes the truth to my words, her argument dying in her throat.

"One more thing. What's your name? I'd really like to call you something other than kitty." I ask, holding out my hand. "My name's Katrina." "And I'm Jay. Nice ta meet ya, Kat." I grin when she places her paw into my hand, the sound of a whoopee cushion sounding throughout the Pokemon Center. "Heh heh. The old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. Gets 'em every time." Chell giggles, while Alita sighs. "Damn it, Jay…" The Purrloin's shock wears off as she too giggles a little.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

[Jay]

After that quick little moment, I find myself with the team, about to unlock the door to the sizeable room that I rented for the night. The Purrloin, apparently not having much experience with human settlements, marveled silently at the numerous things that graced her line of sight, eyes wide in amazement. I, of course, had to explain what most of the things that she was looking at did.

There were a few times when she had tried to steal some things from the people around her, including a watch, a wallet and a Pokeball, all three crimes of which I noticed. Of course I had to tell her time and time again not to do that, but what can you do? Purrloin do have a high tendency to steal from people just to see their reactions. It's in their nature, so letting her steal is pretty much letting her have fun.

This is why, when I notice her stealing from me, I don't say anything. Like right now, for instance, as I reach for the keycard in my pocket, I fail to find anything there. Sighing, I turn around to see Katrina holding up the exact thing I was looking for, getting a look and a groan of annoyance from me as she waves the card around with her tail.

"Looking for something, Jay?" She giggles as I attempt to swipe the card from her long, surprisingly agile appendage. "Just give it back, Kat." I sigh, smirking at her as I miss her tail, Katrina smirking back in reply. She then flips the card up into the air with her tail, planning to catch it with her mouth, but quick reflexes and a swipe of the arm entitles me to the prize of the keycard. "Aw, shoot. You're no fun at all…" Kat pouts, huffing with mock frustration as I smile. "Now, let's head on in, shall we?" I remark, swiping the keycard through the reading slot and opening the door to the room.

As we step inside, Alita quickly flies off my shoulder and onto the bed, taking a rather comfortable looking spot on the pillow to the left side of the bed. "Ugh, come on…" Chell had also dashed off, eager to get to bouncing on the soft mattress, but the height of the bed proves to be her greatest nemesis so far. She's utterly powerless against the sheer slipperiness of the bed sheet, unable to use her legs to get her the rest of the way up.

Katrina, on the other hand, had no problem whatsoever climbing onto the mattress, clearing the difference in height with one quick and powerful leap upwards. Upon gracing the bed with the presence of her soft paws, she curls up into a ball and starts enjoying herself, lazily wiggling her tail up and down as she starts to relax. Sighing at Chell, who's still struggling to get onto the bed, I lift her up by the torso, placing her onto the bed in one swift movement.

"Thanks, Mister Jay!" She giggles, now bouncing up and down on the sleeping apparatus. "Whee hee hee! So much fun!" Her bouncing does interrupt Katrina from her nap, however, as the feline gets up, her tail flicking around errantly, in irritation no doubt. "Stop it right now, Chell." She starts to address Chell as I turn around to put down my stuff on the floor of the room.

Chell, still bouncing around with all the energy of a nuclear reactor, looks at the Purrloin with a questioning expression. "Don't be such a wet blanket, Katrina! You've got to try this! It's really fun, I promise!" She offers, a smile still plastered on her face. "But I was trying to sleep here. Stop, or else…" Katrina warns her, a smile now forming on her muzzle as she slowly approaches the Oshawott with slow, graceful steps. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that almost looks rather menacing.

"Or else, what?" Chell looks pretty curious now, having slowed down her bouncing to listen to what the cat had to say. "Or else, I'm going to have to do…this." Right as she pauses, Katrina uses her long tail to quickly swipe Chell's scalchop off her chest, holding it up in calm triumph as she dangles the item from her tail, licking her paw.

Chell, having realized the situation by now, gasps in surprise and annoyance. "Not again!" She shouts as she runs at the feline, Katrina dodging her advance and running to the opposite side of the bed, Chell, chasing after her as they end up running around the area of the bed, the Oshawott determined to catch the Purrloin.

"Get back here, you shell stealing thief!" Chell demands as she chases the cat around the edges of the bed. "Not a chance." Katrina sticks her tongue out and gives her pursuer a sly smile as they continue the game of cat and mouse, neither side letting up. Suddenly, Chell stops right in her tracks, eyeing Katrina as she continues her sprint. Caught off guard by the sudden change of tactic, Katrina tries to slow herself down, but the attempt proves to be futile as her momentum causes her to slide across the bed, right towards a waiting Chell who tackles her and pins her down onto the bed.

"Ha! I have you now, Katrina!" Chell gloats in triumph as she pants softly, still holding the feline below her with a firm grip. The way that she's resting her body weight on top of the slightly smaller Katrina rendered her unable to get out of the death grip by rolling. Katrina struggles in an attempt to get away, but ultimately fails as she gives up, growing slack under Chell's weight.

"Yes, you have caught me. But how will you get me to return your shell to you?" Katrine smirks back, Chell realizing that she needed to hold her down to get to her tail, but if she let go of her forelimbs, she would be able to get away. After some thinking, she looks to me for some advice on the matter literally at hand-or, at paw, if you will. "Mister Jay! What should I do?" She looks to me, slightly straining to hold Katrina down. At this point, I'm sipping away at a cup of coffee, while Alita has already flew over to join me in my relaxation, having grown bored of the sight outside.

While Alita sighs and looks away with some muttering of idiocy, I quickly come up with a solution. "Think, kiddo. What did I do?" I ask her, wiggling my fingers and grinning for emphasis. Chell initially looks confused, but she quickly understands my standpoint, looking back to the cat underneath her with narrowed eyes and a smirk.

"I'm warning you, Kat. Give me my shell back, or I will use my special attack!" Katrina looks really confused, raising an eyebrow and her tail slowing down a little from the rapid flicking from earlier. "What do you mean by your special attack?" She asks, not knowing the horrible fate about to be instilled upon her.

"…" Chell, saying nothing, quickly lets go of Katrina's forelimbs, quickly but gently wiggling her digits up and down Katrina's stomach, making sure to get in underneath the pits of her forelimbs and on the pads of her paws. As a result, Katrina is exposed to the full force of the Tickle attack, powerless to force Chell off of her due to the weight difference between them.

As Katrina's uncontrollable laughter resounds throughout the room, me chuckling lightly while sipping away on my coffee, Chells' evil, yet cute sounding cackle catches my attention. "Feel the power of the tickle nuke!" Katrina's being attacked mercilessly, but still manages to utter her pleas. "Okay! I yield, I yield! Just stop!" Katrina cries, somehow managing to say a rather coherent sentence under the circumstances. Chell, now satisfied with the answer she got, ceases her assault on the poor cat, Katrina panting like she had just run a marathon. Chell takes this opportunity to take her scalchop from the tail of the Purrloin.

"That…wasn't…fair…Chell..." Katrina pants, still trying to recover from the brutal attack. "You shouldn't have taken my shell, then." Chell smirks, sticking her tongue out in a playful manner. Alita, now having had some time to herself, decides to take a sip of my coffee, as she had shown a rather large degree of boredom earlier. Her immediate reaction to the taste of the rather bitter tasting beverage is as expected. "Bleugh! What even is this stuff!?" Alita splutters, futilely trying to rid her mouth of the remnants of the taste. "It's coffee, Ali. Sorry, kinda forgot to tell you that it's an acquired taste." I sheepishly stick my tongue out, watching her fume a little about the less than desirable experience she just had.

"No duh! You should have told me about that, idiot!" She complains, causing me to chuckle a little bit at her reaction. "You didn't tell me that you were about to drink from my cup, Ali. That coffee off guard, so you should warn me next time." I joke, causing her to groan. "I swear to God Jay, if you make another joke I will end you." She growls, although the smile she's sporting is more than indicating otherwise. Chell, who's sitting next to Katrina, has stopped making conversation with the mischievous little devil for now, deciding to but in with her opinion.

"But I think his jokes are punny!" She giggles, causing me to join in on the laughing as we both get the joke. "Good one, kiddo!" I smirk, Alita sighs and shakes her head, looking in the opposite direction. "Idiot." She mumbles. Looking over to Katrina, I can see that she's managed to catch her breath since the incident, her tail waggling aimlessly while she lies down on her barrel.

"Hey, Kat. What did ya think about that special attack? Pretty breath-taking, am I right?" My comment causes Alita to wing slap me on the back of my head, while Chell start laughing harder, Katrina smiling herself. "Oh, you think?" She deadpans, licking her paw as she continues to lie down, soaking in the cool air of the room.

At this point, I'm done with the coffee, setting the now empty cup down onto the table. I'm really bored, and the team seems to be as well. That leaves me with a couple options. I either take a nap, or…"Well, since we're in Striaton, why don't we head on outside for a while? You know, train for a while." I suggest, grabbing my hoodie and preparing to head on outside. "I'm with you, Mister Jay!" Chell quickly agrees with me, jumping off the bed and running over towards me. "Sounds good to me." Alita flies over, roosting on my shoulder as she gets into a comfortable position.

"Don't forget, I'm coming along as well." Katrina purrs, gracefully landing on the floor and slinking over to our position. With the team all looking ready to go, I unlock the door and step out of our room, heading towards the elevator and the lush, grassy areas of Route 2.

A little while later, I find the team a nice clearing that we can practice different tactics in. I've seen both Chell and Alita in battle before, but Katrina's style of fighting is unknown to me. "Hey Katrina, I'll need you to fight against Chell for a bit." Katrina looks at me quizzically, as does Chell. "I need to see how you fight, and we'll train from there. Now, give it all you've got, and don't hold back!" I encourage them as they both take one end of the field, while Alita and I stand over to the side to observe. "You can start whenever you feel like." I nod, Chell quickly taking initiative.

"Take this!" She smirks, blasting a few quick jets of water towards Katrina. The attacks prove to be a waste, though, as Katrina weaves her way through the streams of water, using both speed and grace to dodge the attacks. She then proceeds to charge towards Chell, creating multiple duplicates of herself due to the speed she's travelling in from side to side. Chell, pretty confused by the appearance of multiple copies of her foe, attempts to blast down all the copies by firing Water Gun, her attacks hitting one copy at a time. However, Katrina's speed makes sure that she gets there before all of her copies get blasted, landing in a nice hit with a Pursuit attack. She continues moving forward after the attack hits, getting behind Chell.

Chell gets punched in the side of her face by the attack, reeling and stepping back a little. Looking closer, I can see that the punch drew a little blood. "Ugh! You'll pay for that!" She spits, turning around and pulling out her scalchop, causing a blade of water to form from its opening. She then slices at the Purrloin, getting a few good hits in due to the Purrloin slowing down, trying to turn around and deliver a few more blows.

The Purrloin takes every blow head on, unfortunately enough, Chell's last swipe sending her skidding away a few feet. The cuts on her barrel and her forelimbs are bleeding slowly, the red trickles just starting to show themselves. Growling and panting, Katrina crouches low, readying herself into a battle stance. Chell does the same, holding her scalchop in front of herself like a sword wielder would.

As determined as both look, eyes narrowing to focus on the opposing side, Katrina suddenly uses her hind limbs to jump upwards in a forward direction, leaping high in the air towards Chell. Paw raised and with three sharp protrusions-her claws-visible and glowing faintly white in the sunlight, gravity finally takes hold of her, sending her plummeting down towards her target at a breakneck speed. Chell, although initially blinded by the sunlight, sees the incoming threat and raises her scalchop to block the attack. As watery blade meets shining claws, I see sparks flying as the two connect with force, neither side willing to give in. Chell grits her teeth, being slowly but surely pushed back by the momentum that the cat had carried in her strike.

However, Chell's idea of toughening it out works, as Katrina's momentum stops, unable to push Chell back further. As she falls to the ground on her feet, Chell raises her scalchop to deliver another close range barrage of slices with Razor Shell. Katrina has her eyes open wide, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get away this time around. That's when I decide to stop the fight. "Stop, stop, stop! That's good enough, you two!" I run over to them, Chell putting away her weapon and Katrina relaxing into a normal sitting position again.

"But Mister Jay! I was so close to winning!" Chell whines, slightly sad about having had her victory torn away from her. "True, but I just wanted to see how you two fought. Both of you are pretty tough, but I wanted to see what methods you fought with." I explain, trying to get Chell to calm down about the interruption. So Chell fights with power, and likes to take initiative as well, while Katrina like using her speed to get the attack advantage. Alita's sticking to her aerial advantage right now, and raining attacks from above seems to work. I might need to teach her some moves to use other than Air Cutter, though…

With their basic attack plans fresh in my mind, I think about their attack patterns for a bit, pondering on how to improve them. Ignoring the conversation that the three are having for now, I take a look at the surrounding area. Some trees, some small pebbles, and a few larger, sturdier looking rocks. Huh. How convenient.

"Got it." I mutter to myself, walking over to a tree and, picking up a rock, starting to bash a small hole into it. The smashing, of course, catches the attention of my team, and they head on over, looking at what I'm doing. "What's that for?" Alita asks, staring right at the hole, then to the rock in my hand. "This is what you'll be trying to shoot your Air Cutter at for a while." I point over to one of the large rocks. "That's what you'll be trying to attack, Kat." I jerk a thumb at the pebbles behind me. "And Chell, go over there where the pebbles are. I'll join you in a bit."

I address Alita first, as the tree she's using is closest. "You're going to work on the accuracy of your Air Cutter." She looks at me in disbelief. "What!? But why? I can shoot more blades than you can count! It doesn't matter if I hit them with only a few!" Sighing, I look her directly in the eyes. "But it does. You need to save energy in fights, and launching a storm of blades isn't the best way to do that. I'd rather you save energy than exhaust yourself, because if the battle gets too drawn out, you might fall first." She doesn't really buy my explanation. "Hmph! I don't need to save energy…" She grumbles, flying upwards to rest in the tree's branches instead.

Looking over to Katrina, I point at the rock again. "You need to run at your fastest while striking the rock over and over. Got it?" She complies with no complaint, quickly starting to chip away at the rock in question. Moving over to Chell, I quickly explain what I want her to do with the pebbles as training goes on smoothly…


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

[Jay]

Remember when I said that training would run smoothly? "Ow! Raargh! This is so stupid!" Chell groans in frustration as another pebble sails past the slim defense that is her scalchop and smacks her right in the chest. Yup, it's not quite going as planned right now…

"Just calm down, kiddo. Remember what I told you. Focus on your target, and strike accordingly." I encourage her and toss another pebble her way, only for it to fly past her raised weapon and smack her forelimb this time. Ouch. That's another bruise to add to the collection. Chell looks like she's seen better days, bruises lining her chest and forelimbs. This time, however, she sighs and tosses her scalchop to the side. "What's the point? I'm not getting it right at all." She sniffs, looking down at the ground. She looks really down now, so I walk over and try to cheer her up a little.

"It's alright if what you're trying to do doesn't happen the tenth time, or the hundredth time, or for the thousandth time. All that matters is that you keep trying, and you'll get it eventually." I comfort her, rubbing the top of her head gently. "Don't give up, kiddo. I believe in you." My words seem to help her, as she gets back up with a smile on her face. "Thanks, Mister Jay." She thanks me as I smile back. "No prob, kiddo. Just remember that you'll usually have a rocky start when you do things." I chuckle, the pun further cheering Chell up as she walks over to her scalchop and picks it back up, giggling at my joke.

"Now, you take a break if you don't feel up for it. I gotta go check on Kat, see how she's doing." I tell her, walking over to Katrina's area of training. She's currently pounding away at the rock with short bursts of Pursuit and Scratch, slowing down every so often to catch her breath. She's not really slowing down, even though it's been three minutes since we started doing this.

As she keeps chipping away at the offending stone, I notice that she's attacking with her forepaws, but she's not really paying attention to how her hind legs are being left out. She's also thinking a little too straightforward, not really paying attention to how she's not circling the target to further increase the chances of finding a weak point. Instead, she's just attacking from a few angles. "Hey, Kat. Could you come over here for a sec?" I beckon her over with my hand, getting her to slink over to me.

She's quite sweaty from the workout, and her body temperature's slightly higher that when we first started. She's also breathing pretty hard, panting as I gently rub her down the back, trailing her spine with my hand as I do so. She tenses up for a bit, but quickly settles into my ministrations, savoring the feeling and making small purrs as my hand works its magic. As I continue to tend to her, I almost immediately feel her relax to my touch, a small smile working its way onto her face.

Slowing my petting of her back, I start to tell her what I had noticed. "So, I've been looking at you hit that rock for a while now, and I couldn't help but notice how you haven't been using your hind legs for anything other than movement." Her ears perk up at this, looking confused at my statement. "What does that mean?" She asks, raising an eyebrow. "It means that you could try and use your back legs to squeeze in a few kicks here and there, to try and get some more damage in. Also, I think circling your opponent would help you attack from more angles. You know, to keep the opponent guessing." She nods in understanding and tries to go back to training, but her sweat-slicked fur and her panting tell me that she needs to take it easy for a bit.

"You can take a break if you need it, you know. Pushing yourself too hard is never a good thing, so take it easy, alright Kat? Last thing I wanna see is you breaking something." I warn her, to which she looks at me with an affirmative nod. Alita, on the other hand, still hasn't done much of anything, still sticking to the comfort of her tree branch as she watches the rest of the team train from a distance.

Heading on over to the tree which she was supposed to strike with her Air Cutter, I look up to meet her gaze. "You could train too, ya know. The rest of the team's already doing it, so why don't you try and join in?" I suggest, causing her to look away and huff. "Why should I? It's not like I need to, anyway." She replies, her mind already made up. "Alrighty, then. Suit yourself." I shrug, walking away and heading on back over to Chell to help her figure out the tedious method of using her scalchop for defense.

It takes a while, me throwing rocks her way, with her trying to block the ones that would otherwise hit her head on, but we eventually make progress. As I throw another pebble her way, she swings at it-and manages to smack it right out of the air. She did such a good job of deflecting the stone, it even flies back towards to where it came from. "Ow! Now I know how you felt back there, kiddo." I grin proudly, wincing as I clutch my now bruised hand. Note to self: don't fuck around with rocks. They hurt like a bitch…

"I…did it!" Chell, much happier now that she finally managed to reflect one, gives a whoop of success, running over to me to share her newfound sense of accomplishment. "Did you see that, Mister Jay? I did it!" She beams. "Yup, sure saw it, kid." I smile back, rubbing at my bruise. She didn't do too much damage, so that's fine with me. Looking over to Katrina, she's making better use of her hind limbs as well, now combining her Pursuit and Scratch attacks with a few kick here and there. She's also managed to adjust her attack angle a little higher in order to land in those kicks, which will no doubt boost the force with which she hits with. The rock has more scratch marks on the other sides as well, meaning that she took my idea of attacking from more angles seriously.

"Alright, team! Why don't we head on back to the Center? You girls could use a break after all this." I suggest, seeing that the two, although having made improvements, seem to be a little tuckered out from all the moving. The sun's almost set over the horizon by now, making the sky above a nice shade of orange. "Actually, I think we've done enough for today. We should head on back, it's getting late." The team seems to agree with the idea, as I hear tired mumbles of agreement from the two that have been training for a while. Alita lands back onto my shoulder, looking a little tired from something. "Let me guess. You fell asleep up there?" I chuckle as she gives a small yawn.

"It was boring up there, so I took a nap." She replies, to which I take advantage of. "But I thought you were leaf-ing the dream?" I chuckle, causing her to sigh and smack me over the head again with her wing as Chell giggles at the joke. Katrina gives a small smile as well, probably finding Alita's reaction hilarious. "You're right, though. I shouldn't leaf you alone for so long." I smirk, causing Alita to groan in exasperation. "No! Stop it right now, idiot!" She pecks me this time, the sharp prick causing me to wince. "Ow! Geez, Ali. Can't take a joke?" I shoot back as Chell's giggling increases to full on laughter.

The sky's a darker shade of colors than when we first saw it, so we make haste towards the Pokemon Center. We're all kinda beat, Alita and I less so because we weren't the ones actually training. We were kinda ready to just head on back up and take a break before heading back down for some dinner.

"So, wanna head on up, take a break, and watch some TV?" I suggest, Chell and Alita quickly perking up at the idea. "Yes please!" Chell vigorously nods, really excited about the prospect of watching some television shows again. "That's not a bad idea. Sitting in that tree was really boring, ya know." Alita agrees as we step into the elevator located in the lobby, pressing the button to our floor.

Katrina doesn't really get what we're talking about, her face one of confusion. "What's a TV?" As we step out of the elevator, I smirk at her. "Something that I'm sure you'll really like, Kat. Just you wait and see…" I reply as I reach for my keycard…only for my hand to turn up empty. Looking behind me, I see Kat smirking back at me. Yup, she stole it again, the sneaky little feline. "Damn it, Kat! Not again!" I groan, causing her to giggle a little at me.

An hour of hilarious TV shows, and some bathroom breaks later, we step out of the room for some dinner down at the dining hall. For some reason, we all managed to find America's Funniest Home Videos playing a mite early, so we managed to get a barrel of laughs from that. "Those recordings were so funny!" Chell laughs, unable to control herself due to the immense amounts of failure in each recording. Alita was also laughing for the same reason, unable to control herself. "Did you see how that guy bashed his head on the ground though? That was such a laugh!" She cackles as Katrina can't help but stifle a few giggles herself. "I must say, that was pretty hilarious." She smiles as I chuckle along with them. "Yup. Watching people fail can be funny sometimes. I'd say that's fail-ly accurate, eh girls?" I smirk, Chell giggling from the pun that just so happened to escape my mouth. "You and your stupid puns, Jay…" Alita sighs, slapping me with her wing. "I tend to disagree that those jokes are stupid. In fact, I find them quite funny." Katrina's words quickly back me up. "See Ali? Puns are awesome!" I quip as she groans in response.

As we step out of the elevator Alita and I are still arguing. "Are not!" "Is too, silly!" I chuckle, smiling a little wider than usual. The dining hall is bustling as usual, trainers both old and new chatting together. As Katrina soaks in the new sight of so many people in the same place, slightly in awe at the concentration of humans here, I alert her to our next objective by giving her a light poke on the nose, causing it to scrunch up. "We've gotta go fine ourselves a seat, Kat. I don't know about you, but I don't wanna eat while standing up." She quickly snaps out of it, nodding at me as we head on over to an empty table and take a seat.

Chell, quickly grabbing a plate off the table, runs off to find some grub. Sighing in response to that, I look on over to Alita and Katrina. "You two coming along? Food won't eat itself, ya know." I ask, jerking a thumb over to the food tables. Katrina quickly grabs a bowl, holding it in her muzzle as we leave the table.

As we walk over to get some hotdogs, I ask the two what they feel like having. "So, anything you two would like to have tonight? I'm settling for some 'dogs." Katrina looks confused at what I just said, as does Alita. "Dogs? What do you mean?" Alita looks at me, curious as to what I'm referring to. "An apostrophe dog. You know, these ones." I gesture to a pile of hotdogs sitting under a heating lamp. "We call 'em hotdogs, but I don't like long names. Too much to remember, so I just shorten it." I explain, grabbing a few and putting them on my plate.

"Berries, Jay! I want 'em, and I want 'em now!" Alita commands, to which l internally laugh at the irony of. Pokemon commanding their trainers… The end is nigh! "Alright, Ali. I'll try and find those berries for ya. How 'bout you, Kat?" She doesn't think, quickly answering my question. "Could you locate some fish?" The speed of her answer surprises me, and I just manage to catch what she said. "Sure, Kat. I'll find ya some. Come on, I think the fish section's closer." Walking over, I can already smell the whiff of cooked fish, and taking a closer look, I can see that fish of all kinds are placed on the table. There's even some fish sticks to the far left.

Looking back over to the cat, I can already see her mouth watering, licking her lips in excitement with wide eyes. "Someone's already eager to have some, eh? Take your pick, Kat. Tell me what you feel like having." She immediately jumps onto the table, eyes focused on the plate with the Magikarp fillets on it, the fish in question raw. Picking up a few of the larger fillets, she places them in her bowl, picking up the bowl in her jaws.

Or at least, she tries to. The fish is weighing down the bowl too much now, rendering her unable to lift the bowl with her muzzle. "Hnng! Nnng!" She groans, failing in her objective. Chuckling, I pick up her bowl for her. "Here, let me hold that for ya." Picking up the fish bowl and placing it onto to the plate next to my hot dogs, I move on to the salad bar, picking up another berry bowl for the Pidove on my shoulder. Before we head on back to the table, I manage to snag myself a cup of milk.

Heading back to the table, I can already see that Chell's already gotten started with her food, munching away at the fish sticks and her hotdogs. "Hiya, Mister Jay!" She manages to mumble through a mouthful of 'dog. "Heya, kid. I see you've already started." I chuckle, taking a seat and placing down the bowls of food onto the table.

Katrina quickly takes a leap onto the table, sitting down in front of her bowl and starts nibbling away on the fish, while Alita starts pecking away at her bowl of berries. Katrina's eyes quickly widen after taking the initial bite, now eating through her portion at an increased pace. "Heh, tastes good, doesn't it?" I smirk at her reaction to the taste, taking a sip of my milk as I munch through my first 'dog.

As I munch on my hotdog, I can't help but notice Kat staring at my glass of milk. "Want some?" My question catches her off guard, causing her to jump a little in place before looking at me. "Go ahead, I don't mind." With my reassurance, she moves on over to the cup and takes a tentative lick. The second the creamy white stuff touches her tongue, she quickly increases her licking pace, lapping rather ferociously at the milk. Huh. Cats do like the taste of milk. "Geez, Kat. Slow down. It's not like that's gonna go anywhere, ya know." She looks over after she's had her fill, licking her lips in contempt. "Thank you for sharing, Jay." She gives a curt nod and a smile before resuming her eating. "No prob, Kat." I reply, biting another chunk out of my hotdog as I listen in to Chell's conversation with Alita, the topic of human fail events still fresh in their minds by the sound of it.

Ketchup and hotdog mix to form a nice flavor, with just the right amount of texture to slide down the throat pretty easily. Finishing with my hotdog, I reach for my next one, taking a few bites. Chell's already wolfing down the last of her food, her plate squeaky clean except for the last hotdog on her plate. Alita hasn't really managed to make a dent in her pile of berries yet, and Katrina's already about halfway through her meal.

"Hey, Ali. Can I have some?" I ask, looking at the berries, and back to her. "No." Her blunt reply quickly makes short work of all my hopes and dreams when it comes to snacking on the sweet juiciness of berries. "Fiiine, I won't have any then. Can I have some fish, Kat?" I ask the feline instead, the cat sighing as she reluctantly gestures over to her bowl. "Here, just take some." Taking some of the raw Magikarp, I stick my tongue out at Alita. "See? Katrina's willing to share, unlike you!" I grumble, huffing at the greedy bird, who smirks back as she pecks at more of her food.

While we have our little verbal tussle, Chell and Katrina have a laugh, both giggling from the little antic we just had. Meanwhile, I barely notice that my remaining half of a hotdog is about to fall into mischievous paws as Katrina quickly swipes the 'dog out of my hands. As I try to take another bite, I accidentally get a mouthful of fingers for my trouble. Looking over to the feline, I immediately spot her grasping the 'dog in her tail, a smirk painted on her face. As she giggles at my confusion, I sigh and face palm. "Damn it, Kat…" I shake my head, Chell and Alita now laughing at the sneaky move pulled during the confusion. How the hell she always manages to do that, I may never know.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

[Jay]

You'd think that after a few hours of training with your team and getting some great work done, you'd deserve a tiny break from all the bullshit that life throws your way. That's what I was thinking, until I see a person roughly my age and wearing a windbreaker, matching white sneakers and a black cap striding pompously towards me. And it doesn't really take a genius to figure out who would do that to me, knows who I am, and is rich as fuck.

"Hello again, Jay. I see you've added a Purrloin to your pathetic team." Sighing, I reluctantly put down the cup of milk I've been drinking, and stare at the last face I wanted to see today, the smug little fucker staring right back at me. "Jimmy. I'd ask how you've been doing, but I don't really care." His smirk unchanging, along with the way he's looking at me like a high class individual would look down on one of lower economic power is really annoying. "Come on, Jay. Why wouldn't you care about me? I am very important, after all." He gloats, emphasizing himself by placing a hand on his chest in an extremely narcissistic manner, his tone of voice so fucking condescending.

My team also shares my viewpoint, apparently not happy to see him either. All three Pokemon have stopped eating casually and have tensed up in their stances, eyes narrowing in hate and malice. My patience is running thin, so I waste no time in addressing the little shit before me. "Cut the crap, ya snot-nosed brat. What do you want?" I growl, really not wanting to have to deal with this right now.

Jimmy quickly reels back in shock, quickly narrowing his eyes at me. "Silence, peasant! That's no way to speak to an upper-class member like me!" Clearing his throat after his little outburst, and frowning a little when he notices my unfazed and bored expression, he continues to run his bitch-ass mouth. His outburst does catch the attention of a few trainers around us, their faces turning sour when they realize that the notorious rich kid's back in town.

"That display of rudeness aside, I've come here to fight you." Hearing his excuse to annoy me this time, I crack my knuckles and smirk. "Sorry buddy, but I'm gonna have to say no. I don't punch little girls." This statement causes his smirk to drop off his face, Katrina and Alita smirking at the insult. "Good one, Mister Jay!" Chell snickers, her laughter only adding insult to injury. The crowd's pretty quick to react as well, laughing their asses off. One of them even makes the 'O' sound.

At this point, you can imagine how pissed the rich prick is right about now. "I'm not talking about a meaningless fistfight! I'm talking about a Pokemon battle!" He angrily protests, taking a shiny Premiere Ball from his belt and shoving the brightly polished capture device in my face. His face is a new shade of red, whether from embarrassment or from anger I will never know. "I'm going to show you that I'm more of a trainer than you'll ever be!" He laughs, showing no lack of confidence in himself, or rather, confidence in the team he paid out his ass to get. As soon as he mentions that he came here to challenge me, I quickly stop myself for a minute, thinking the option over.

As much as I'd gladly like to show this little faggot how far my fist can embed itself up his ass, I'm concerned for my team. We just trained, and this fight isn't going to be easy to begin with. Sending tired Pokemon against much stronger opponents in top fighting condition is just asking to get an ass kicking, and I'm not about to watch my team lose due to the condition they're in. I may be stupid, but I'm not that stupid. "Calm your tits. I'm just gonna ask my team if they're willing to fight you."

"You girls up for a fight? This won't be an easy one." I turn around, ignoring Jimmy to the best of my ability for the time being. Jimmy, however, can't help himself, immediately taunting me before my team could give me an answer. "Asking your Pokemon if they wanna fight for you? God, you are such a coward. Although, I guess weaklings ought to stick together." He snickers, instantly pissing off the entirety of my company.

"I can take him, Mister Jay!" Chell seethes, ready for a fight. "I wanna kick his ass too!" Alita instantly sides with Chell, also demonstrating an immense amount of hate towards Jimmy. "Count me in as well." Katrina calmly states, although her narrowed eyes and her fur that's now standing on end telling a different story entirely. Smirking, I nod in confirmation and turn around to look the little bastard right in the eyes.

"Well then, looks like we're all more than happy to fight." I spit, looking at him with a burning determination. "Alright, here's how it's going to go down. We head on over to the arena. We fight, I win." Jimmy smirks, walking on over to the closest arena and entering the lit battlefield. It's a basic field, nothing but an expanse of flat land for trainers to pit their Pokemon against each other with.

"In your dreams, shit face." I shoot back, taking my side of the field while Jimmy takes his. As we both stare each other down, the referee who had been standing by this whole time, finally notices the battle about to take place and stands on the small podium to judge the fight from a distance. Our dispute has attracted a rather sizeable crowd as well, the people taking their places on the sidelines to watch the fight unfold.

Jimmy, being the attention whore that he is, waves his hands at the amassed crowd, like he's expecting them to clap for him. Getting nothing but a bunch of stares in response, he quickly ceases his actions as I cough, making the situation quite embarrassing for him. "Whatever! Let's see you handle this!" He shouts, throwing onto the field one of his three Pokeballs. The capsule opens up, and releases Jimmy's first Pokemon in a blinding flash of white light.

The Pokemon lets out a powerful cry, growling at me as it stands its ground. A Stoutland, and a rather large one at that. This is the perfect time to try out what Katrina's been working on. "Hey Kat, why don't you try and take on this big guy?" I suggest, Katrina looking rather intimidated by the large dog, but nods at me and takes her place onto the field nevertheless. The dog, seeing the cat, smiles wickedly at her and gets her to shake a little. Katrina's looking like she's already regretting the decision to fight the opposing Stoutland already, clearly scared of the much larger opponent.

Shit. If she's scared, she won't be able to fight at her best. "Kat, listen to me! You can do this! Size isn't everything, so don't worry and trust me!" I encourage her, getting her to snap out of it and take a battle stance regardless of her fear. "Yeah! Don't let that big jerk scare you!" Chell cheers, rooting for Katrina as well. Jimmy just laughs at my little pep talk. "Seriously, Jay!? Pokemon don't have to trust their trainers, they only have to obey without question! I'll show you what a real trainer's supposed to be! Stoutland, destroy that pitiful Purrloin!" The large dog, upon hearing Jimmy's rather vague command, quickly charges up a Hyper Beam attack. Surprisingly, the beam fires only a few seconds after charging, which results in less dodging time for us. "Katrina! Dodge!" She manages to weave out of the way of the attack, luckily enough, the large beam missing her by a hair.

"Run around it!" Quickly, Katrina rushes up to the still recovering Stoutland, running circle around her opponent. "Now, use Scratch!" She quickly jumps up into the air, using her sharp claws and the force of gravity to slam into her opponent, causing some good damage as she rakes a gash along the dog's side. The dog barking in pain, Jimmy is quick to berate it for its poor behavior. "It's behind you, moron!" He shrieks, the dog turning around just in time for Katrina to scratch it in the side again, this time putting more damage into the attack by using her hind limbs to kick downwards after her claws hit.

Jimmy isn't really helping to clear the dog's confusion, either. "It's to the left, you dumbass dog! Bite it!" The dog turns to the left, only for Katrina to run around it from the back, striking its legs this time. This time, the dog fires another Hyper Beam out of frustration, only for Katrina to slash at it repeatedly while it recovers, quickly adding more and more small cuts to the dog's body, wearing it down. The dog's movements start to slow, its Bite attacks getting less frequent and more inaccurate as Katrina dashes around her much larger opponent, chipping away at its stamina with her increasingly frequent scratching.

The dog's really struggling to stay standing now, its breathing labored as it tries its best to even get a bead on Katrina. "Time to end this, Kat! Use Pursuit! Aim for the head!" Katrina nods before leaping onto the dog's back, using the dog as leverage to get even higher into the air, using her paw and charging up some dark energy. "Take this." I barely hear her mutter as she drives her paw right into the top of the dog's head, resulting in a sickening crack.

Even I wince along with the crowd, the dog toppling over with the force of the blow as it has its tongue out, its eyes closed. "Stoutland is unable to battle! Purrloin wins! The first match goes to Jay!" The judge announces, as I give a thumbs up to Katrina, who looks rather surprised that she even managed to best the Stoutland to begin with. That shock quickly turns into pride and triumph when the crowd starts to cheer shortly after, as she quickly runs back over to me. "Thanks for the guidance." She breathlessly tells me, breathing heavily due to the energy she spent in defeating her opponent. "No prob." I tell her back, rubbing the top of her head to show my gratitude and appreciation towards her.

Jimmy, however, isn't too happy about his loss. "H-how did…T-there's no p-possible way…" He stutters, at a loss for words as he withdraws his fainted Stoutland. "What was that about showing me how much better you were, Jimmy? 'Cause I don't see how you're beating me right now." I chuckle, causing his rage to further increase. "Shut it, asshole! Let's see you beat this!" He shouts, face red with equal parts embarrassment and rage as he sends out his second Pokemon.

A second flash of white light reveals Jimmy's next Pokemon-a Throh. It quickly looks around, looking confused as to what its next move is supposed to be. With the natural fighting ability that these Pokemon possess, Katrina isn't going to last very long against this opponent. I need to take this one out of the match soon, and I have just the Pokemon to do it. "Kat, come back for now." I call her back, Katrina running back over to our side of the field without complaint.

"Alita, I'll need you to take this one on." Alita, unlike Katrina just now, is quick to take her stand-or rather, aerial position-as she readies herself for a fight. "Alright! It's about time I got a chance to fight!" By the sound of it, she's pretty damn confident, too. At least I don't have to worry about her battling skills being affected. As she switches out, Katrina slinks on over to the bench and assumes her usual sitting position. Chell immediately congratulates her on her win, to which she nods in thanks.

"Start off with Agility!" I command, Alita using the gale she whips up to boost her speed. The windy aura dissipates quickly, leaving Jimmy no room to take advantage of the time she used to boost her speed. Not that he cared, though. "Don't just stand there, damn it! Get over there and beat it up!" The dumbass, as expected, uses another stupid and vague command. When will he learn to at least learn the name of the attacks his team uses? The Throh, however, charges forward at a blinding speed, throwing back a fist as it locks onto Alita. The Throh's trying to use Close Combat. If that connects, that could do serious damage, even with Alita's typing advantage over that hulking giant.

"Quick, Ali! Dodge and use Air Cutter!" Alita follows through with the command, the attacks missing her by a hair as she flies upwards to gain distance between her and her target. Once she's high enough, she flaps her wings in rapid succession, flinging a storm of sharp air blades that make short work of the opposing Fighting Type, the numerous amounts of cuts on its body combined with the type advantage a little too much for the poor Pokemon to take. "Yes! Nice work, Alita!" I cheer. "Well, duh!" She deadpans, her confidence still high. After a few seconds after the dust clears, the Throh is still standing, but barely.

Jimmy, of course, doesn't give a flying fuck (heh, get it?). "You fucking moron! Hit it again!" The Throh just makes a face, an obvious look of 'really?' as he just shakes his head and just sits down. He's not making any moves whatsoever, and his facial expression is neutral, like he's waiting for something. That's when it hits me. A Pokemon this proud isn't even going to fight back? He's just waiting for us to finish him off! The Throh then decides to nod at me, as if confirming my suspicions. Before I tell Alita to land the final blow, I apologize to it. "Sorry, buddy." I mutter, the Throh giving me a look of 'it's alright.' Shutting my eyes, I give Alita her next command.

"Finish it, Ali! Air Cutter!" A few seconds, and a copious amount of blades later, the Throh lies still on the ground when I open my eyes, having already lost consciousness. Hopefully it didn't hurt too badly. "Throh is unable to battle! Pidove wins!" The judge announces, our second victory made official. The crowd, now more on my side, cheers at my second win as I smile in triumph at our win.

With his Fighting Type defeated, Jimmy is once again left speechless as to how this novice trainer was beating the tar out of his Pokemon that he spent so much money to get. As I give one last sad look towards the spot where the Throh was before sighing, Jimmy starts to yell at his Pokemon again. "You stupid, worthless sack of shit! I ought to put you up for bargain for how useless you are!" He yells at the Throh through its Pokeball, oblivious to the real problem that was causing him to lose.

"That's enough, you sad excuse for a trainer. Are you going to continue or what?" I ask Jimmy, still feeling an enormous amount of guilt for cutting down that poor Throh. Although I'm still sad about what just happened, seeing Jimmy's face literally turn three shades redder is really fucking satisfying. "How dare you call me an excuse for a trainer, peasant!? That's what you're supposed to be!" He screams, fuming with anger. "Then I guess you aren't even above being a peasant then, 'cause this 'peasant' is kicking your sorry ass." Me, my team, and some of the crowd do share a smile at the retort, Jimmy only getting angrier.

"Rrargh! You will not speak to me this way! Go, Snivy!" He shouts, his next Pokeball releasing his starter Pokemon that he unceremoniously swiped off the table back at the lab. The Snivy looks around, glaring daggers when it sees its so-called trainer. It looks beaten and bruised, with a few scratches here and there, along with the occasional bruise to be seen on its body. Overall, it looks like it survived a one-on one with that Throh from earlier. Although Alita still has the type advantage, I'm not so sure that the Snivy's gonna go down with her usual attacks, weakened as it is.

"Ali! You wanna take a break? Katrina's still fighting fit, ya know." Alita does look winded from how quickly she had gained so much altitude like that, but she shakes her head regardless. "I'm fine! Now let's kick Jimmy's ass!" She smirks, getting me to nod back. "Alright, then. Use Air Cutter again!" She doesn't bother flying upwards this time, firing her barrage at the Snivy from a near point-blank range, the blades whizzing forth at a very frightening speed. "Attack it! Slam that pathetic bird into the ground!" Jimmy issues his command, the Snivy charging right towards the barrage of blades…

Only for it to weave through the attack with lightning speed, instantly closing the distance between it and Alita. "Shit! Alita! Use Peck!" Alita pecks at the opposing grass snake, but it dodges the Peck attacks as well, only taking a single hit from Alita's sharp beak. The Snivy ends up running around Alita, causing her much frustration as she fires air blade swarm after air blade swarm, only for all of them to miss. The blades are spaced a little too far apart, so that gives the Snivy more room to avoid them in the first place.

"Hold still, damn you!" Alita growls in frustration, trying her best to hit the slippery little snake. "Calm down, Ali! Gain altitude before it's too late!" I shout, noticing the Snivy getting closer and closer, the circles its running around Alita getting smaller and smaller.

"Smash that bird!" Jimmy yells, the Snivy lashing out its vines to grab Alita. "Dodge it!" I command in desperation, trying to get my feathered friend out of the predicament she's gotten herself into. However, Alita recognizes the order a second too late as the vines wrap around her leg, violently jerking her out of the air and slamming her into the field repeatedly, the Snivy not letting up.

"Now throw it!" Jimmy cackles, the Snivy doing as told as it flings Alita out of the field, causing her to crash into the wall beside me, her eyes closed and her body unmoving as Jimmy grins in delight at his victory. "Pidove cannot continue! Snivy wins!" At the judge's announcement, I run over, quickly scooping up my fallen friend as the crowd simply observes.

"Alita! You okay!? Talk to me!" I nudge the Pidove as tears brim in my eyes, cursing myself for not withdrawing her sooner. As I cradle her and walk towards me bench, I hold up my hand, signaling a time-out. I get a confirming nod from the judge, allowing me to temporarily pause the battle at hand and tend to my injured partner. What I don't notice during my sorrow is that the Snivy's eyes widen in surprise for a moment before it shuts them and shakes its head.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

[Jay]

The feeling of knowing that you sent someone to basically die out there sucks, especially when you know you could have prevented it. Cradling the now unconscious bird in my arms, that's exactly the heart-wrenching guilt that I'm feeling. "Take a break, Ali. You deserve one, after what you just went through." Gently setting her down on my bench, I take one last look at her still form, her breathing the only sign of life.

Gritting my teeth in anger, I quickly hold up my hand to signal the end of my time-out. "Let's do this, Chell!" Chell quickly looks back at me, nodding with a determined rage in her eyes. "I'm ready, Mister Jay!" She grits her teeth, assuming her battle stance as she locks on to the Snivy, her stare on the snake not letting up.

As the snake stares back, I take this time to consider my options. Since I've already lost the aerial advantage I've had for a while, I've gotta play it safe. I'm not too sure about how the Snivy fights, fast speed aside, so I've gotta test out the rest of its battle skills. "Chell, use Water Gun!" Chell quickly blasts multiple water attacks in the direction of the Snivy, only for it to dodge all of them with minimal effort, as the grass snake avoids the attack, with good reason to. The fact that it's already wounded pretty badly provides more than enough incentive to avoid the attacks.

Huh. The Snivy's not gonna stand there and take those long range attacks, even though it has the obvious typing advantage over Chell. "You have an advantage, you twit! Attack! Whip that weak little Oshawott into the ground!" Jimmy fumes at the Snivy, the grass snake reluctant to follow his command, but does so anyway. It uses its vines to lash out at Chell, the two appendages whooshing forth towards her at a breakneck speed.

"Chell! Dodge 'em!" I quickly tell her, Chell following the command pretty well as she weaves back and forth, avoiding the Vine Whip as she goes. She's doing a pretty good job, but that won't last long. She's really wearing herself out from those continuous dodges. If this keeps up, she's gonna end up getting really tired. Then, with her stamina out of the way, a simple wayward smack from those vines will most likely end the match. Gotta think of something, and fast!

However, after squinting at the fight for another few seconds, the solution reveals itself. Strangely enough, the Snivy is just using both whips to lash out in the same direction, sweeping left and right. Those vines are like lengths of rope, which means that they'll probably wrap around something at the speed they're whizzing around at…Maybe I can end up using that to my advantage.

"Chell! Use your Scalchop! Block the vines!" Chell quickly lifts her Scalchop to follow through with my command just as the vines swish towards her, smacking into her raised water sword and wrapping around it. Now with its vines immobilized, the Snivy is suddenly at a loss for what to do, trying to retract the extended appendages. Chell's grip on her Scalchop holds, though, as she grips tightly onto the shell, not letting go of her weapon. "Don't just stand there, you idiot! Get it close to you so you can hit it!" Jimmy angrily seethes, the Snivy immediately trying to pull in the Oshawott on the other side of its vines.

"Swing your blade up and down!" Chell looks at me quizzically when I issue my next order. "What?" She asks, looking unsure of this new action that I have requested her to do. "Trust me on this one, Chell! Slash up and down!" I reassure her, seeing the Snivy already slowly but surely reeling Chell in with its vines. Luckily for us, Chell does notice the decreasing distance between her and the Snivy, so she does as told. Swinging her blade up and down, she creates waves that travel along the vines. The force at which she's swinging at causes the Snivy to get brutally thrown upwards and slammed into the ground repeatedly, until the vines finally loosen from around the blade of water. The vines retract to its owner, said Snivy defeated, rendered unconscious by the violent slamming.

"Snivy is unable to battle! Jimmy is out of usable Pokemon! This means that the victory goes to Jay and his Pokemon!" The referee announces, causing Chell to jump into the air triumphantly before she runs over to me. I can hardly believe what I just saw, what I just did. We won, despite common sense dictating otherwise. The crowd's cheering as well, my fight just now really seeming to have put on a great show for the dining audience of trainers. "We did it, Mister Jay! We beat 'em!" Chell exclaims happily, as I pick her up and head on over to the bench where Alita and Katrina are waiting for us, the former now conscious and the latter licking her paw with that rather lax grin on her face. "We sure did, kiddo. All of us." I grin back, satisfied at the win against the rich sack of shit. Katrina nods back, also seemingly content with our recent victory.

Alita's just not willing to look back up at me, though. Wonder what's wrong with her this time around… But before I can tend to her and figure out the problem, I'm swarmed by trainers that had watched our fight. Trainers old and new, both congratulate me on the win against impossible odds.

"Dude, that was such an amazing fight! The way your Purrloin moved like that was so cool!" One trainer comments, causing Katrina to start acting a little more confident and sheepish as her smile grows a mite wider in pride and confidence. "The way your Oshawott fought was so awesome! I hope I can train my Pokemon to fight just like yours!" One younger kid beams, obviously hyped up by the intense battle. Chell smiles bashfully in response, twiddling her paws in embarrassment. "Thanks kid, but training takes a wott of work." I chuckle, some more easily agitated trainers giving me a face of 'really' for the pun, while Chell and Katrina get a few giggles out of that.

"Your Pidove's pretty strong, by the looks of it. That Air Cutter was really powerful, indeed." A more refined looking fellow in the crowd congratulates me on the win as well, causing me to get a little prideful. Alita, despite herself, smiles a little upon hearing the words of praise. "Thanks, bud. But the real stars of the show are my Pokemon here. They really…make the cut." I joke, causing some trainers to groan audibly while others chuckle a little, Chell giggling at the pun while Katrina smiles as well. "Alright, guys. It's late, and I should get me and my team some rest. The fight back there was pretty intense, so I should get them to the TRAM machines as soon as I can." I suggest, the trainers letting out a series of 'oh yeah' and 'right's, quickly dispersing to do something else. As we head on over to the front desk and ask the Audino at the counter for Nurse Joy, I notice Jimmy out of the corner of my eye, mumbling a series of rather colorful death threats to the Pokeballs in his hand.

That doesn't look too good. As Nurse Joy shows up, I quickly gesture to my team. "Here, Miss Joy. Heal up my Pidove in the TRAM for me, will ya? I've got some business to take care of, so I'll be back in a bit." Looking over to Alita, I jerk a thumb to where Jimmy was a few moments ago. "I'm gonna check out what that butt hurt little snitch is up to, so you listen to her and get healed up, alright?" She says nothing, but nods to confirm her understanding as Nurse Joy's Audino scoops her up and carries her to the TRAM machine room.

"Come on, girls. Now that Ali's getting herself patched up, we're gonna head on out and see what Jimmy is up to." I state, getting the both of them to follow me out the Pokemon Center. As we step out, we suddenly hear part of a conversation. "What the fuck were you doing back there, you worthless snake!? You should have won that fight with Jay's Oshawott! You had the god damn type advantage, and you just threw it away!" I hear Jimmy's voice to the left of the Pokemon Center, behind some bushes. "Quick, girls. We've gotta figure out what he's up to." I whisper, crouching behind some bushes, Katrina and Chell following suit. "What's happening over there, Mister Jay?" Chell whispers, now on edge from the shouting. "I dunno, kid. Doesn't sound too good, though." I tell her as I take a peek over the bushes.

What I see is Jimmy glaring at the Snivy I just fought, the grass snake glaring back. The Snivy's too weak to fight back, though. Classic Jimmy, not even considering giving his team a heal before talking shit about them. "I would have won, if it wasn't for someone's worthless advice." It spits, fueling Jimmy's rage further. "Are you bad mouthing me!? You disobedient little ingrate!" He snarls, kicking the Snivy in the torso, the Snivy thrown back a few meters from the impact of the attack. As Jimmy walks on over to the Snivy, I can see that he's also got a Pokespeech Translator, this one from Sylph Co. That's the newest model of translator, that rich ass hat.

"I'd be better off still stuck in that lab instead of staying with you." The Snivy chokes, blood visible as it trickles from its mouth. That's not a good sign. If Jimmy keeps it up, the Snivy might not end up living through today. "I'm going to-" Jimmy starts, only for the grass snake to interrupt. "To do what? Kill me? Go on ahead." The Snivy spits out some of its blood, the red substance staining the grass. Some of the blood ends up landing on Jimmy's shoes, pushing the brat over the edge.

"My sneakers! You're going to get it now, you worthless snake!" Jimmy yells, raising his foot to smash the Snivy's head in…"Now! Stop him!" I yell, surprising Jimmy for a moment before Chell and Katrina leap out of the bushes, Chell grabbing on to Jimmy's raised foot from behind and Katrina jumping onto his head and covering his eyes. The resulting confusion causes Jimmy to lose his balance for a second, before he regains his balance and shakes off the two Pokemon. "Get off me, you pests!" He shrieks, throwing Chell and Katrina off him as he turns around to see me standing between him and the Snivy.

"What are YOU doing here?" He fumes, pointing an accusing finger at me. "I was here to enjoy the scenery, but your abuse of this Snivy was really distracting." He doesn't back down, staring me right in the eyes as he jabs a finger my way. "And how does training of my Pokemon concern you!? You already managed to win, so why are you still here? To rub your victory in my face!?" Ignoring the uncaring asshole, I take a look at the Snivy. It's bruises are getting worse, and by the way its squirming in pain, internal bleeding is definitely happening to it.

Seeing the unfortunate Pokemon in such pain, I snap. "Training!? You're going to kill it, you fucking moron! You can't just blame your Pokemon for your own incompetence!" I shout. How dare he do this to a Pokemon! At this, he snickers as he shakes his head. "My own incompetence? Clearly these Pokemon are to blame! They are nothing more than tools for us humans to utilize!"

Tools!? Oh, that is it! Pokemon aren't just that! Teammates, friends, partners…They're more than just items to use in fights! "Sure, believe what you wanna believe, then." As much as I wanted to say what I think, I don't feel like it. Trying to get to him is just a massive waste of time, so I'm going to tend to more important matters: getting the Snivy to the Pokemon Center. "However, Pokemon abuse is a crime, and is punishable by going to jail for a long, long time. So unless you want your journey cut short, I suggest you back down." I speak, but my voice turns a tone darker, a tone meaner. More cruel.

Jimmy takes a step back, looking the part of being intimidated by me, alright. "F-fine! You want to defend this Snivy so much!? Keep it!" He screams at me, taking a Pokeball-Snivy's Pokeball, and crushing it in his hand. The spineless little coward then proceeds to run away, in the opposite direction of me. My glare doesn't change, even when he leaves. Stupid ass butt hurt loser. How dare he- "Mister Jay!" Chell cries, tugging at my pant leg rapidly. Snapping out of it, I look down. "Yeah, kiddo?" Chell looks at me with a scared expression, while Katrina looks at the Snivy. "Mister Jay, you looked so scary when he said those things…" Chell looks to be on the verge of crying, and Katrina looks scared of me as well. "Sorry, kid. I promise that won't happen again. I promise you." I pat her on the head before Katrina grabs my attention with her tail over my nose, drawing my attention to the Snivy.

Looking down at the slowly dying Snivy, I frantically check for signs of life. "Hang in there, little buddy. You're gonna be alright." I attempt to comfort it, running as fast as I can to the Pokemon Center. As I make my way over, the Snivy opens its eyes, rather surprised to see me. "Y-you…" It croaks before I shush it gently. "Don't talk, bud. Save your strength for trying not to die, 'kay?" As I rush in, holding the wounded Snivy, Nurse Joy quickly gasps and rushes on over. "This Snivy's hurt real bad, Nurse. You need to get it to a RAM, stat!" I quickly tell her, Nurse Joy complying and quickly telling her Audino to use Heal Pulse on the Snivy while it carries it to the nearest machine.

"Okay, Mister! I'll have to hear the whole story!" She points an accusing finger at me, her face telling me that I am in some deep shit right now. "He didn't do it! I saw someone else do it!" Chell defends me, holding out her paw in front of me. "I can also say that this trainer here did not cause the Snivy harm." Katrina also stands up for me with a paw pointing at me, getting Nurse Joy to fully understand that I wasn't the culprit here. "So, it started when I saw this trainer beating up his Snivy…" I tell her the whole story, minus the part where Jimmy was involved, so I just said that 'I couldn't see his face'."

She seemed a mite skeptical about the part where I couldn't see his face, but dismissed it as the poor lighting conditions of the environment. As she leaves to tend to other injured Pokemon that don't require the use of RAMs, I turn to look at my team, who are still kind of scared of me. "Aw, come on. I wasn't that scary, was I?" I ask, really not getting why they're still scared. "But Mister Jay, your look just now was so scary…" Chell protests. "Agreed. You were looking very formidable a while ago." Katrina nods in approval of Chell's comment, looking rather cautious of me now. "Sorry about that, girls. I guess I was just…really mad about what he said back there." I sheepishly apologize, rubbing the back of my head.

"I'll try not to let that happen again, okay? I promise." This helps the two relax again, Katrina relaxing her stance while Chell smile grows less worrying and turns into a happier one. I reassure them again, holding out my hand. Chell takes my outstretched hand, with Katrina following suit. However, the combined pressure causes the familiarly hilarious sound of a whoopee cushion to resound through the room, catching the attention of a few trainers around us as well. Chell giggles, while Katrina smiles her usual lax smile. "Heh, funny right? The ol' whoopee cushion in the hand trick. Gets 'em every time." I chuckle, before standing up and heading on over to the RAM machine room. "Come on, you two. We should probably head on over and see if Ali's doing okay. She got hurt real bad, and I think she should be all set in a moment." I suggest, walking over to check up on our feathered friend, with Chell and Katrina following close behind.

Upon our arrival, I see Nurse Joy about to open one of the capsules. I quickly walk over to her, a bit concerned about the condition of my partner. "Hey there, Nurse Joy. How's my Pidove doing? Is she gonna be alright?" I ask, seeing Nurse Joy smile at my question. "She's going to be just fine. In fact, I'm about to open up her RAM machine, so you can take a look for yourself." As she says that, she presses a few buttons on the panel next to the machine, the sound of liquid draining from the machine leading to its opening as Alita blinks and looks around, looking at me guiltily as I pick her up and put her in my arms.

"And before I forget, the Snivy you sent here is going to be healed up shortly. We put it in the upgraded emergency RAM unit, so it's going to be fine." She adds, before quickly leaving the room. Man, she looks so busy at this time of night. Sighing, I decide to take a peek at the clock suspended above the room. It reads about half past eight, so we still have some time to head on back and relax for a bit before heading to bed.

Just then, another one of the chambers open up to reveal the Snivy that had looked like death a while back, still unconscious as I scoop her up and put her next to Alita. "Come on, girls. Let's go back upstairs and take a break. We all need one." I suggest, the team letting out mumbles of approval. Sounds like they're all pretty beat, as well. The question remains, though. What am I going to do about the Snivy? It's not going back to Jimmy's side, that's for sure.

Shrugging as I step into the elevator and pressing the button to our floor, I push the thought to the back of my mind for the time being. The team's conversing with each other about their wins, but I quickly tune the noise out and focus on my own thoughts. That's a problem I can think about later. Right now, I wanna just sit my ass down and watch some TV…


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

[Jay]

Opening the door to our room after having to go through that tiring ordeal, and the annoyance of Katrina swiping my keycard again, I step into the room, allowing my team to take their break as I set down my backpack onto the floor and throw my hoodie on top of it. Chell's having some difficulty getting onto the bed she just loves to bounce on, but a quick helping hand-or helping tail, rather-from Katrina, who had already leaped onto the bed helps Chell to grace the bed sheets with her presence.

As Chell bounces around, Katrina decides to watch some TV, grabbing the remote and turning the screen on, flipping through the various channels as she tries to come to a conclusion about what to watch. As I turn on the boiler and wait for the water to come to the right temperature, I decide to get the problem of a down-in-the-dumps bird fixed up. "So, Ali. Mind telling me what's up?" I ask, Alita mumbling something incomprehensible for me to hear. "Sorry, Alita. Couldn't hear ya that time." I reply, raising an eyebrow in concern.

"I'm sorry, okay?" She mumbles louder this time around, looking at me with the face of someone who had tasted defeat-oh wait. "For what? The loss wasn't your fault, so what are you sorry for?" I ask, genuinely confused as to why she would apologize to me in the first place. "I lost because I didn't train, right?" She explains, still looking rather miffed about her loss earlier. "That's why… I'm sorry for not practicing my moves with the rest of them, Jay." She sighs as I pull her into a hug, taking her by surprise. "Nah, not your fault, Alita. It was kinda my fault for letting you fight like that, so I'm the one who should be sorry." I reassure her, using my hand to pet her by the head gently.

"Besides, everyone does suffer the pain of defeat every now and then. So, why don't we train harder to get better at this whole fighting thing, so ya don't have to lose again. Promise me, will ya?" I ask her, getting a smile and a determined nod from the Pidove in reply. "I promise." I nod and release her from the hug. "Why don't we shake on it, eh?" Upon seeing my sly grin, she quickly slaps me across the face with her wing. "No. No more whoopee cushions, you idiot." She sighs, but her grin remains. "Aw, come on, Ali! They're hilarious!" I whine, before a vine grabs my attention, grabbing my ear quite literally. "Huh? What…" I pause in my tracks as I look down to see the Snivy, now fully awake. "Oh, heya. Up and about, I see." I greet the grass snake as it looks at me, recognizing me as the one who helped it out earlier. "Thank you for earlier." It speaks in a feminine tone as it looks around, noticing Chell and Katrina watching TV.

That reminds me…"So, how much of our little…moment did ya hear, miss?" I ask her as she looks around the room, causing her to stop her sightseeing and answer me. "Every bit of it." She bluntly says, causing me to blush in embarrassment. Man, now I feel so humiliated for acting so squishy. Just then, I hear someone's stomach rumble, and the sound is coming from the Snivy's direction. Seeing the snake's now flustered expression, I chuckle. "Someone's hungry. Come on, this room does have some food." I pick her up and move her over to the coffee table, where there's a conveniently placed bowl of fruit. The Snivy tenses up as we come into close physical contact, but slowly relaxes after I place her onto the table, looking at me with uncertainty.

"Come on, buddy. Wanna bite? We're not hungry, so go on ahead." I gesture to the fruits as Chell and Katrina finally notice the awakened Pokemon. "Oh, so you're awake? Hiya! I'm Chell, and this is Katrina!" Chell beams, eager to engage in conversation with her. The Snivy gives a curt nod, starting to engage in eating the berries in the bowl. "I see. It's nice to meet you." She quickly starts to bite into the berries, enjoying the nice flavor of each one. "Slow down! You might choke, you silly!" I sigh as the Snivy eats her fill. Chell takes this moment to say something so ironic, I almost started laughing. "Man, she sure eats a lot."

After the Snivy is done, she looks over to me and gives me a firm look. "I need answers. Why did you save me?" She stares into my eyes, her gaze almost demanding me to tell her the truth. "Well, I don't really know why I did it. I guess you could say I really hate seeing Pokemon suffer, I guess." I shrug, causing her to look at me suspiciously, but ends up not being able to see any lies behind my smile and gaze. She doesn't say anything, though. It's almost like she's scared of me and my team or something. I shrug, not paying her behavior much attention. "Anyways, why don't you just hang with the team, alright? I'm gonna get cleaned up, so you can ask the team any questions you feel like asking."

I give the team a serious look before grabbing my stuff and slipping into the bathroom. "Listen to me, girls. I don't think she's all that comfortable around me, so why don't you try and talk to her, get her used to hanging around some non-violent, less forceful Pokemon, alright?" I ask, getting affirmative nods. After what I saw go down between her and Jimmy just now, her caution towards me is understandable. "It's okay, Mister Jay! You can count on us to get through to her!" Chell nods with a 'hmph'. Chuckling, I ruffle her head playfully as I walk into the bathroom to shower myself. Moving past the Snivy, of whom I'm certain heard the conversation, I move on into the bathroom to relax for a little while.

In all honesty, I have no idea how that's going to go. Better finish up my showering quickly, so I can avoid a mass fight that results in property damage. You never know how unfamiliar Pokemon are going to react to each other. Quickly showering and changing my clothes, I walk outside of the bathroom to see…a completely normal room that hasn't been blown to hell. Katrina and the Snivy are on the bed and getting along pretty well, while Chell and Alita are watching TV on the couch. The show that's on right now is a fighting flick with swords, and Chell is swinging her scalchop in an attempted imitation of a swordsman, while Alita keeps watching Chell and the show to compare, making comments of Chell's skills along the way.

"That is the television. You can watch multiple shows on numerous channels with the device that Chell is using there. That's a TV remote." Katrina points with her tail, the Snivy nodding in understanding. "Heya, Kat. You two are getting along just fine, eh?" I come on over, seeing the Snivy tense up as I approach the two conversing Pokemon. Katrina nods in confirmation to my statement, purring happily as I scratch behind her large, pointed ears. "Indeed we are, Jay. She is quite the suitable talking partner. She is also quite eager to learn." She gives me a run-down of their talk so far, the Snivy nodding, but not willing to talk to me. Her expression looks like she has conflicting feelings about something-or rather, someone. Her gaze towards me isn't hostile, but it isn't too friendly either, as if judging me.

"Sounds good, Katrina. You two keep on with the talking, 'kay? I'll just head on over to those two over there and see how they're doing." I smile and walk on over to the two Pokemon watching TV, who are currently arguing about something. "Is too!" Chell growls. "Is not!" Alita retorts, both Pokemon looking at each other in a less than friendly manner. "Woah, woah, woah, you two. What's all the fuss about?" I ask, trying to get them to cool down. "Alita's telling me that my sword skills aren't good!" Chell complains. "That's because they aren't!" Alita retorts, huffing and looking at me. I sigh, rubbing the bridge of my nose in mild annoyance. "Alright, kiddo. Let's see your sword moves, okay? I'll make my decision then." I suggest, moving over to allow room for Chell to perform.

Chell, now looking more confident, starts to swing her scalchop. The blade makes some swishing sounds as it moves through the air, proving that she's putting lots of power behind those strikes. She's also slashing with quite the large amount of ferocity, her slices quickly following each other in rapid succession. Her slicing only moves across in a few directions, though. As she finishes, panting a little from the slight workout, I give her a little applause, clapping my hands in appreciation. "Bravo, kiddo, bravo!" I smile, giving her a pat on the head. "Well, I think both of you are right in your own way. Chell's movements are good, but they could be better." They both look at me strangely when I say that. "But who's more right?" Alita demands, Chell looking at me as well for an answer.

"Well, both of you are just as right. Both of you can be good in your own way, so keep at it, Chell. Same goes for you, Alita. I can train the both of you in the morning, but for now, we should take it easy." My answer seems to satisfy them, both of them making nice again as they flip on over to the comedy channel, starting to have a nice laugh at the hilarious scenes showing. As I sit down to join them in the funny business, I can't help but notice Chell starting to space out again. "Hey, Chell? Earth to Chell!" Alita's words snap her out of it, getting her to look over to Alita. "What did you just say? I didn't catch that." She sheepishly smiles, before restarting the conversation. Alita, although raising an eyebrow, doesn't really pay that little strange window of events much attention, resuming her chat with the Oshawott. That's strange. I thought she had dealt with whatever had been plaguing her a while back, so why is she acting up, too? Maybe the Snivy has something to do with this?

Meh, I'm not sure. I might just be over thinking these things, so it's probably nothing too serious. For now, I'm just going to focus on the show, and getting myself a cup of something to drink. Looking through the fridge, I find a few Center provided cans of soda, which come free with the rented room. At least there's that. Not one to waste a moment of thought, I grab a can and crack it open, the hissing sound of carbon dioxide escaping the can grabbing the attention of Chell and Alita as I sit down next to them.

"What's that, Mister Jay?" Chell inquires as I take a sip of my can of soda. Alita, probably because of her run-in with coffee, stares at the drink apprehensively. "Oh, this? It's soda, a sweet tasting drink. The bubbles add a nice kick to it, and the flavor does vary with the names you'll see on the can. Wanna sip?" I ask, lowering the drink to her level. Chell lifts up the can with both hands and takes a sip, holding it in her mouth. Her yes growing wide, she quickly gulps down her mouthful as she gasps for air. "Ugh, that hurt my mouth…" She complains, sticking her tongue out of her maw.

Seeing this, I give a little chuckle. "That would be the bubbles. Don't hold the stuff in your mouth, kiddo. The bubbles will make you regret that real quick. If you drink it a little faster than you just did, though, you might notice a difference." Following my advice, she takes another sip, gulping down the drink instead of just keeping it in her mouth, licking her lips once she puts the can down. "Mmm! That was much better than before! I could taste the sweetness, and it tastes a little like Oran Berries!" She quips as I take the can back from her and take a sip myself. "Told ya."

"Really? Let me try." Alita, now curious about trying the soda due to Chell's positive feedback, sticks her beak into the can opening, only to quickly retract it and sneeze. She shakes her head afterwards. "What was that!? I felt it prickling my tongue!" She makes a face, sticking out her tongue as she says so. Heh, the bubbles claim another unsuspecting victim. "I thought I said to be more careful with the bubbles, Ali. They can be really prickly when you keep the drink in your mouth for too long…" I chuckle. "You should have told me sooner, idiot!" She growls, slapping me with her wing. "Geez, it didn't kill ya, so calm down!" I grin, raising a hand to block her wing slaps. In the meantime, Katrina and the Snivy both decide that the couch is the right place to sit, making themselves comfy beside the rest of us.

As I take another sip, my mind clicks into place another cleverly crafted pun. "Heh, there's a reason soda is called soda, ya know." "Why?" Alita asks, not bothering to tear her gaze away from the television screen. "It's because its soda-licious." I grin, Alita groaning as Chell giggles. The Snivy doesn't really like the pun, in drastic contrast to Katrina, whose smile grows a little wider. "That wasn't funny." She states, her bored stare indicating that she found my sense of humor less than amusing.

"Meh. Puns just let me leaf my life a little happier, so I'm not complaining." I chuckle, the Snivy just shaking her head in exasperation while Alita pecks me with her beak, Chell laughing harder while Katrina giggles a little herself. "Ouch! That hurt…" Wincing at the sudden peck to my hand, I retract in and shake it in mock pain. "Geez, Alita. You sure peck a punch!" Chell snickers, as I laugh along with her. The Snivy doesn't really react this time, instead staring at me in a confused manner. I don't notice, though. Alita's reactions are far too hilarious to not check out! Soon enough, though, our laughter dies down for a moment before resurging, the comedy themed cop show playing on screen more than sufficient of a laughter generator.

Time really flies when you're having fun, and this moment is no exception. The next time I pull out my phone to take a peek, I can already see that a few more hours have gone by. Looking back towards the television, I can see that the cop show's just about finished. "Come on, gang. It's time for bed. Can't practice without a good night's sleep, am I right?" I suggest. "Sure, why not. I'm pretty beat." Alita mumbles, sleep already starting to take its hold on her. "Agreed. We should rest." Katrina mews, although the half lidded look she's giving isn't much of an indication that she's tired. She always looks at us like that, so I'm not too sure. The Snivy's already gotten a head start, using her vines to hoist herself onto the bed, curling up into a ball on top of the pillow to the left side of the bed.

However, Chell decides to protest. "No! I'm not going to bed!" She crosses her arms in defiance while shaking her head. "Come on, kid. We really should take a nap." I try to reason with her, but she still stands firm, not backing down. "No! I'm gonna stay up and watch TV!" Hearing her choice, I sigh as I approach her. "Well then, if that's how its gonna be…" I trail off for dramatic effect before I act. Making a 'fssh' sound with my hand, I put my hand to my ear, acting like a policeman reporting to headquarters. "Alpha 10-1, we have a naughty Chell who's…resisting a-rest." I smirk, getting Chell to giggle as Alita uses her wing to face palm. Chell takes this opportunity to get off the couch and start running. I quickly follow the little runaway, emulating a chase scene as I go. "Alpha team, I am moving in to apprehend the target. Requesting immediate assistance." Katrina, playing along, is quick to follow, using her grace and speed to help me herd Chell into a corner of the room. "You'll never take me alive!" Chell giggles, imitating a criminal's speech as she tries to escape our clutches by running from out underneath my legs. However, a quick and precise sweep of my arm grants me the prize of a runaway Oshawott, the little prisoner trying to wriggle her way out of my grasp. "Target apprehended. Appreciate the assistance, Kat." I give Katrina a thumbs up.

"If you continue to resist capture, I shall be forced to take the necessary counter measures." I warn her, Chell still trying to get away. After a few more moments of struggling, I decide to end this, taking her to the bed and pinning her down onto it with one hand. "As pun-ishment for your crime of resistance, you shall be subjected to my wrath and eight hours of sleep." I state, quickly ticking the living daylights out of her as I get under her arms with my fingers.

"Nohohoho! Pleahehehehese!" She squeals, begging me to cease my assault on her most ticklish regions. As I release the offending Pokemon, she gasps for air, winded by my attack. "Alright, kiddo. It's time to go to bed now." I sigh, still smirking from the fun we just had. As Chell moves over and lies down next to the Snivy, who appears to be asleep, I see Katrina slinking up onto the bed and taking a nice little spot next to Alita as I slip in between the four Pokemon. Letting out a yawn myself, I roll over to the right as I switch off the master light switch next to the bedside table.

"Goodnight, girls." I sigh, closing my eyes. "Goodnight, Mister Jay." Chell mumbles, yawning as she says so. The rest of the team doesn't reply, only silence greeting my ears as I nod off to sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

[Jay]

"You two must fulfill your purposes, N-5." That voice…that fucking voice! "No! We're not some tools for your own selfish goals!" I scream into the never ending blackness, readying myself for a fight. However, the voice only chuckles darkly, as the world around me gets darker. "You are as foolish as always, N-5. You two were created to free us all from them. She must also realize this, instead of living a meaningless life." The voice spits, with hate dripping from its tone as it forces the word 'them' out of its metaphorical mouth.

"You just want their power for your own selfish goals, you sick bastard!" I shout into the dark, but the void slowly fades as the world around me turns into a snow covered expanse of flat land. At the center of this expanse, I see my sister wearing my hoodie, smiling sadly and crying as she looks down and tugs at the piece of clothing. "Brother…I know what I must do now. I will fight… to honor your memory." She sighs, before her right eye glows a fierce orange, like fire. Her expression turning angry, she leaves and vanishes into the blizzard, shedding one last tear before she turns around. "Sis, NO! You don't have to do this… Please…" I sob, the dream quickly losing its hold on me as I jolt awake.

The first thing I notice about myself when I wake is that I've broken out into a cold sweat. Wiping some of the sweat from my face, I realize that I've also been crying again, judging by how moist my eyes feel. I'm also breathing pretty hard, my heart racing as it tries to keep up with the emotional stress I just experienced. "Whew, just a dream…" I try to comfort myself, still shaking in fear. The nightmare just keeps on repeating itself, the exact same events playing out every night. To be frank, it's pretty damn annoying on top of being terrifying. "Heh. But how can I be frank, when I'm Jay?" I give a hollow chuckle as I mutter the joke to myself, sighing as I slowly move myself out of bed, the need for fresh air and a stretch more powerful than I first gave it credit for.

Getting up and grunting as I move my body around the room, I take a look around the place, eventually settling my gaze to the bed. Katrina and Alita are both fast asleep, Katrina making soft breathing noises while Alita makes slight cooing noises in her sleep. Chell is… wait a second. Where the hell is she!? And where is the Snivy? They've both seemingly vanished into thin air while I was asleep, but where could they have run off to at this time of night?

As if on cue, I hear two very familiar voices, silently chatting away in their native tongue. Slipping on my earpiece, I walk over to the window to see the two Pokemon I was looking for, bathing in the moonlight. As I creep closer, I can faintly listen to what those two are talking about. "Why would you say that? I trust him!" Chell gasps, her voice showing her confusion, yet she sounds rather uncertain. "But I don't. What if he's planning something? What if he actually intends to hurt all of you?" The Snivy replies. So the Snivy doubts my intentions, while Chell's arguing that I'm pure of heart. Welp, I guess I should step in now. "Heya." I simply say behind them, causing both Pokemon to jump into the air, obviously startled by the sudden intrusion of my voice.

Turning around quickly, Chell looks at me nervously, while the Snivy looks a lot more cautious of me, her expression growing darker as she takes on a defensive stance. "Sorry, Mister Jay. I couldn't sleep…" Chell apologizes, face showing some level of guilt. "Nah, it's okay. I couldn't sleep either." I shrug, taking a seat by the window next to them. The Snivy, however, doesn't really feel like the usual idle chit-chat. "How much did you hear?" She asks, her tone rather serious. "Enough to know that you don't really trust me all that much." I reply. "So, any particular reason that you don't?" The Snivy says nothing for a bit, before looking away and giving me her answer. "Don't you have another reason for doing this? Being so nice to me? You humans always have other reasons." By the look on her face when I asked her the question and the way she's trying to avoid the question, I don't think she's willing to remind herself of that story, or tell me about it.

Sighing, I decide to give her some evidence that I didn't have any other motivations. "If I really was greedy, do ya think I would have stuck up for ya back there, when you were about to die?" I ask, the snake not answering, but her face is slowly softening against her will. "That wasn't my business at all. If anything, I could have just turned around and left. But I didn't. I tried to help you." I calmly state, the Snivy trying to find some form of lie from in that statement, but ends up finding nothing to throw back in my face. "How do you think I managed to get Alita to travel with me, huh?" I then ask, pointing a finger towards the sleeping bird. "I'm sure you can tell that she's pretty hotheaded by now, and she absolutely hated me when she came to. But here she is now, tagging along with the rest of us." I explain, the Snivy unable to find an explanation that would fit that story if I had ulterior motives, either. "And that brings me to Katrina over there. I'm actually trying to help her get revenge by helping her get stronger." I finish, looking over to the small feline sleeping with Alita on the bed. "He's…right. I was there when those two things happened." Chell chimes in, although she doesn't seem too sure herself. Actually, it sounds like she's realized something, along with the Snivy.

With the Snivy's eyes widening in realization, I stop talking for a few moments, letting the idea that I wasn't evil as she was lead to believe sink in for a bit. Her facial expression slowly changes from aggressively defensive, to a more somber, sad one. "Hey, uh…are you okay?" Growing concerned, I reach out to try and pull her in close, but her expression hardens again as she lashes out at my extended hand with a vine, leaving a nasty red marking on the back. "I'm sorry, Jay. But I don't trust you. I just can't." She shakes her head, her expression now one that represents her conflicting emotions. "I understand. Jimmy really messed you up, huh?" I sigh, the image of Jimmy beating down on her fresh in my mind. How many times had he kicked her the way he did… How much suffering did she have to go through? People like Jimmy really make me sick sometimes, the heartless bastards.

As I wonder, I look towards Chell, who now seems to understand the Snivy's point of view a little better. She walks over to the Snivy, and pulls her into a hug. The Snivy gasps, showing just as much confusion as I am. Before she can retaliate in any way, Chell speaks up. "I don't know how much pain you've felt before this, but I can tell you this much. Mister Jay's a good person, and it didn't take me long to figure it out. What you said may have made me doubt that, but what he's done so far tells me that he's not like what you think he is." She says, pulling away shortly after and giving the Snivy a smile. The Snivy thinks for a while, but still comes to the same conclusion. "I don't know…" She replies, obviously still unsure about the idea of trusting me.

I know where she's coming from, with the whole shit storm about Jimmy and all. But she's a lab raised Pokemon, so she doesn't have anywhere to go. She might survive on her own, but there's always the much larger chance that she'll die out there, being much more dependent on the controlled conditions of the lab. So, letting her run out into the wild isn't a good option. I either take her back to the lab, or I try and convince her to place her trust in me, get her to come along with us. The latter may take some time, and the other one's much easier to do… Ah, fuck it. We're going with option three.

"Look, you may not trust me right now, but why don't we try something out here?" I suggest, getting the attention of Chell and the Snivy. "You stick with us for a couple days, see how things play out. If you decide that you don't want to be around us, then you can leave. I want to show you that all humans aren't all that bad, like Jimmy was to you. I want you to try and give humans a second chance. What do you say?" I suggest, the Snivy giving this rather strange request some thought. "Yeah, come on! It'll be lots of fun!" Chell adds, really excited about the prospect of inviting a new partner into the group. The Snivy seems against the idea, evidenced by the narrowing of her eyes during her decision. However, she comes to make the opposite of her original choice. "Alright then, Jay. I accept your offer." She nods, Chell jumping up in glee.

"Yay! You won't regret this choice, I promise!" She squeals, while I hold out my hand to make her acquaintance. "Well then, why don't we shake on it?" She nods in reply, smiling as she holds out a vine to meet my hand. However, she fails to notice the giddy smile on Chell's face grow a tad wider as a farting sound emits from our shake, leaving the Snivy rather confused as to what happened. Holding out my hand, I show her a whoopee cushion that I've had attached. "Good one, Mister Jay!" Chell laughs while I chuckle. "Heh heh, the ol' whoopee cushion in the hand trick. Gets 'em every time." The Snivy now realizes the trick, sighing and lowering her eyelids in annoyance as she looks at me. "Oh come on, now. Don't look so annoyed, 'cause you kinda handed that one to me." I joke. "That wasn't funny." She simply states, causing me to shrug. "Meh, every one to themselves. Anyways, what should I call you by? I'd kinda like to know you by a name, unless you're fine with me calling you by your species name." Hearing this, the Snivy shakes her head lightly. "I don't have a name. My old trainer didn't give me one." She scowls, spitting out the mention of Jimmy like an Oran Berry gone bad.

"Okay, then. Do you want me to give you a name, then?" I ask, the Snivy not really showing much emotion and looking over to the side. "Do what you like." She replies apathetically, although by the sound of it she really wants me to get the go ahead and give her a name. Thinking over the list of possible names, I immediately turn down the prospect of giving her a conventional human name. They're kinda weird to use, names like Lily and Jade. They are nice sounding, sure, but not really something I'd use to call a grass snake by. So, I turn to the more complex, majestic world of foreign names. Running through the list of names in my head, I quickly find one that sounds nice, and fits the Snivy quite well. "How about Nesia, then? It's Lamian for snake girl, and it does have a nice ring to it." The Snivy gives a thin, but happy smile at the name. "It…sounds nice. Nesia." She repeats, the name already rolling off her tongue pretty smoothly. She learns fast, the smart cookie.

Chell nods in agreement to the name. "Ooh, sounds mysterious!" She smiles at the Snivy, the snake smiling back. Looking at Nesia, then to Chell, I can't help but have my grin grow a little wider. Chell's smiling sure is infectious, but this type of infection is a far cry from being bad. It's the type of happy feeling that her smiles give, that nice happy feeling that leaves you unable to resist the idea of smiling back. Silence ensues during this short time, but I don't care, pulling both Pokemon in for a nice, warm hug. Chell shows no resistance, but the Snivy initially tenses up, obviously unsure about the intimate contact. However, after noticing no attempt to harm her, she lets herself relax into my embrace along with Chell, who sighs in bliss as she feels my warm body heat in contrast to hers.

"Hey Chell?" I get her attention, causing her to glance at me. "Hmm? What is it?" She asks. "Thanks…for believing in me this long, kiddo. Really means a lot to me, how you stuck around. You didn't doubt me, even when Nesia told you otherwise." "You're welcome." She replies, snuggling her little furry form closer to my chest. I sit there for a while, unmoving as I soak in this tender hearted moment for a bit. Yawning, I notice then and there just how sleepy I was. "Man, I'm tired. We should get some sleep, eh?" I suggest, only to see the two Pokemon I had in my arms fast asleep, Nesia on the right side while Chell is snoring away lightly on the left of my arms. I can only shake my head and sigh in response to what I'm seeing. Looks like they've already gotten a head start, the cute little bastards. Moving over to the bed and setting them down on the left side of my pillow, I take of my Xtranceiver to charge it as I lie down. Sleep wastes no time in solidifying its hold on me, as I find myself slipping quickly into the realm of the unconscious.

[It is time skip time, and the time to rhyme!]

The sun shines through the window of the room as I reflexively shied my poor, sensitive eyes from the relentless inferno that is that burning ball of gas in the sky. Sitting up, I let out a yawn as I stretch my limbs and push myself out of the bed and onto the floor. As I try to remember what I dreamed about last night, I just don't seem to recall anything that I dreamed of. "Heh, maybe I'm getting too old to remember things." I chuckle to myself as I walk on over to the bathroom to get my teeth brushed and my face washed up. As I walk past the door frame, I end up bashing the side of my arm into the damn thing instead. Wincing as I hold my arm in slight pain, I sigh and have a little laugh at my own clumsiness. Or maybe my depth perception is already fading because of age. Seriously, I'll probably have to check if I am growing old already.

After my early morning preparation, I walk out of the bathroom and wear my hoodie, feeling really good as I head on back over to the bedroom. "Come on, Ali! Wake uuup!" Chell whines, annoying the crap out of the target that she's pushing. Katrina's already up, lazily looking over at me as I walk on over to them. Nesia's also up and about, staring at me a mite friendlier than she was last night. "Heya, gang. So, anyone need to take care of some business? I'm done, so go ahead." I yawn, jerking a thumb over to the general direction of the bathroom. Katrina, not one to be told twice, moves her way off the bed and slinks into the bathroom. Man, she moves fast, and with a considerable amount of grace as well. Meanwhile, I divert my attention to Chell and Alita, the former of which is still trying to wake the latter up from her slumber.

"It's morning already, Ali! Even Mister Jay's up by now! He left the bed already!" She whines, trying to get the Pidove to cease her sleeping. Groaning in annoyance, Alita buries her head a little deeper into her wing. "Isn't it better now that he's gone? He can't make puns now that he's isn't here." Gasping in fake shock, I put a hand over my chest to feign hurtfulness as I walk over to Alita and Chell. "But if I'm gone, then who's gonna stick around to tell you hilarious jokes? That would just be so tragic, wouldn't you agree?" Obviously, Chell is immediately with me on this one. "I know, right? That would be so sad, right Nesia?" She grins, knowing the Snivy wouldn't really go with the idea but asks anyway to get her reaction. Nesia, as expected, looks at Chell incredulously before speaking her mind. "No. Actually, that would be an improvement." She smiles, while I take my time to chuckle at Nesia's initial reaction to the question. A reaction to puns, no matter how negative, is always funny. "But puns are so funny, Nesia!" Chell protests, although her smile shows that she's not really taking the pun hate seriously.

"Come on, kiddo. We should leaf her alone for now, lest she gives us a vine whipping later." Chell and I both enjoy a shared laugh, much to the chagrin of Alita. "Ugh, no more puns Jay!" She yells, now clearly awake as she flies up and off the bed to smack the back of my head again. "Already flying into a rage, I see. Don't waste all your energy on stopping my puns, though. You'll need to be at your beak performance to train up today, heh." I chuckle, grinning at her exasperation. "Argh! No! Stop it, you idiot!" She groans, perching herself onto my shoulder. Nesia shakes her head and sighs, while Katrina, done with her business, looks on with humorous interest as she sits down at the doorway leading out of the room. "So, anyone have anything else they need to deal with before we head on out?" I ask, hearing no replies to that question.

"No? Alright, then. Let's go get some breakfast, shall we? I don't know about you girls, but I'm starving." Chell quickly agrees with my suggestion, the prospect of some food in the belly never failing to motivate her. "I'm with you on that one!" She nods in agreement, jumping off the bed and sticking the landing in one fell swoop. Nesia silently agrees, using her vines to secure herself a better vantage point. In this case, my shoulder is now serving as her seat, the Snivy using her vines to place herself down onto my shoulder. As I pick up my backpack, I grab the keycard to our room and open the door. Chell and Alita are close behind, walking out next to me as we head on over to the elevator and get ourselves some breakfast. I take this short window of opportunity to stop for a moment, grabbing the attention of the team as they notice their trainer stopping. "What's wrong, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, genuinely confused by the sudden halt. "Is there something amiss, Jay?" Katrina asks, after Chell's question gets no response. "Meh, it's nothing. So, without feather adieu, let's go get some breakfast, shall we?" I grin, acting as if I had shaken myself out of some thought. "Ugh, finally I get to eat some-" Alita stops, obviously getting the pun right after she started her sentence. As Chell giggles, Alita groans as she slaps my head with her wing again. "Damn it, Jay!"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

[Jay]

Breakfast, widely considered by many people as the most important meal of the day. Whether you eat it alone or with others, it is usually noted that you don't eat too much for breakfast, lest you get some stomach issues later. However, this is pretty much lost on Chell. She's wolfing down an entire stack of pancakes, along with a side of bacon and maple syrup as Nesia looks at her in awe. Alita and Katrina are relatively unfazed by the spectacle of mass pancake massacre, casually munching on their plates of berries and fish sticks respectively. As I place my cup of chocolate milk down, I catch Katrina out of the corner of my eye, the feline taking a few hearty licks out of the liquid in the cup. After I had told her about the milk content of hot chocolate, she gave it a try and immediately fell in love. Not that I blame her, though. I'd assume you to be a sad, sad individual if you haven't tried chocolate milk before. Licking her lips, Katrina resumes the consumption of her food, one bite at a time.

Meanwhile, I decide to take another sip of the drink while I bite into my hotdog. Looking over, I tap Nesia lightly on her head to grab her attention. "You'd think with the amount of food she's eating, she'd have choked on something by now." I comment, attempting to make some conversation with the Snivy. My effort works, getting the Snivy to give me a curt answer. "Agreed. It's pretty surprising." She nods, reaching for a fresh Sitrus Berry with her vine and taking a bite. She asked for more Sitrus berries in her salad, and the way she's biting into them and chewing slowly indicates to me that she's got a taste for them. Speaking of which, I kinda want some fruit myself. "Do you mind if I have one, Nesia?" I ask, reaching for one as I say so. "No." She replies quickly, slapping away my hand with a quick vine swipe. Retracting my halted appendage, I pull away from her bowl. "But why? I just want one…" I whine jokingly, emphasizing the word one as Nesia gives me a look of annoyance and confusion, not really catching on to my humorous effort as I give her an exaggerated frown, crossing my arms and furrowing my brow in a similar manner. "You should go get your own, Mister Jay!" Chell butts in, her mouth stuffed with pancake and syrup as she jokingly tells me off. Nesia looks at the Oshawott, then back to my mock pouting face in confusion. Maybe she isn't that used to light banter, huh…

Shrugging, I take another bite out of my hotdog. "If you're gonna keep to yourself, then that's vine with me." I chuckle as Nesia shoots me an annoyed look, disapproving of my sense of humor as she frowns. "No." She quickly shoots my pun down as soon as it leaves my mouth, before she turns her head slightly, just enough for me to catch her half-lidded stare. "Alright, you win. No more jokes for now." I pout in mock sadness as I shake my head, sipping my chocolate again. Looking over to Chell, who has finished with her genocide of the stack of tasty pastries, is now staring at her scalchop as it gleams in the sunlight shining through the window for a moment. She's smiling as she stares at her weapon, the shell looking in good condition as she sticks it back on her chest. That's literally the fifth time she's taken her shell off her chest to tend to it. I know those things mean loads to the Oshawott evolutionary line, but still… "Something the matter, kiddo? You've really been paying more attention to your shell since you saw that sword fight on TV." I ask her, raising an eyebrow in interest at her sudden seriousness. She's usually all pun and games, heh.

"I know, Mister Jay. It's just that, well…I find those swordsmen really cool! I wanna be like them when I fight other Pokemon someday!" She beams, showing no lack of respect for the art of swordsmanship. I chuckle, ruffling her cute little head playfully. "Nice to see you giving yourself a goal, kid. You just work as hard as you can, and you'll get there someday." She nods with an affirmative hum, smiling brightly at me as I smile back. "I will! I won't let you down, Mister Jay!" She promises me. "And I promise to never let you down, either." I reply, finishing off my hotdog as she says so. "I'm surprised, though. You're usually all pun and games." I joke and raise my eyebrows, causing her to giggle when she realizes the pun. "You are rather fun to chat with, Jay." Katrina adds, slinking over to join in on the conversation. "Why thank you, Kat. I guess I just make the purr-fect jokes paw-sible." I click my tongue while giving her the finger guns, getting a smile out of her as well. "Hey Chell, do you notice you're missing something?" I ask, both Chell and Katrina tensing up when I point out the obvious.

Katrina's looking really suspicious, with her tail behind her and all. Chell, looking around, finds nothing of hers that's missing, until she feels for her scalchop. She tries to get it off her chest, but she comes up empty handed as Katrina sighs in slight disappointment. "Well, there's no point in concealing this, now is there?" She smirks, holding up Chell's scalchop from her long, slender tail. Chell's look of surprise gets Katrina to giggle, while I chuckle myself. The feline was right. People's reactions can get pretty hilarious when they realize what's been stolen, Chell's reaction to her swiped scalchop being no exception. Her surprise quickly molds into playful anger as she decides to give chase after the sly cat, Katrina quickly realizing Chell's ill intent directed her way and taking a leap off the table to avoid her fate. I wasn't having any of that, though. "Nope. You're not leaving the table anytime soon, Kat." I swiftly deny her escape with a quick aerial sweep of my hand, holding Katrina close to my chest as she squeaks in surprise at the sudden pick me up. "It's really crowded in here, and I'd rather not spend my time trying to find the two of you in here, 'kay?"

Katrina looks rather miffed due to me taking the fun out of her thievery, but nods in reluctance to my reasoning. Putting her back onto the table, I quickly pull the scalchop she's holding out of her tail's grasp and hand it back to its rightful owner. "Thanks!" She smiles, eagerly swiping the shell out of my hand and putting it back on her chest. "No prob, kid. Just make sure you keep an eye out for it, or you may end up rather shell-shocked the next time you lose it." I smirk, getting her smile to grow wider as I take another sip of the hot chocolate. Alita really doesn't approve of my joke though, and makes her opinion known by roosting on my shoulder and smacking me upside the head with her wing. "Quit it, Jay! Your puns aren't funny!" She groans, looking at me with a disapproving glance. "Well Ali, I tend to disagree. Your smile tells me otherwise." I chuckle, countering her claim as she sighs. "I'm not smiling because of your jokes, you idiot! They're really stupid, anyway." She huffs, although her smile is still stuck to her face. "You can deny it all you want, Ali. It doesn't change the fact that you like my jokes." I smirk as I taunt her, the Pidove's face getting a tint redder in embarrassment. "No, I don't!" She retorts, huffing in anger as she looks away. Now that I notice it, she looks really cute when she's flustered like that, but I don't think I should voice my opinions to get her even angrier right now.

"Alright I'll stop teasing you, then." I reply, getting her to look back my way. "Fine. But don't tease me like that ever again. It's really annoying." She throws a light glare my way, accentuating that fact. "Heh, no promises. I just hadn't expected that topic to ruffle your feathers like it did." I smirk at her, winking as she groans. "You're such a stupid idiot, Jay." She grumbles. "I appreciate you too, Ali." I reply, while Chell giggles at our banter. Katrina smiles while she takes another drink out of my chocolate, and Nesia silently eats her fill, the team and I silent as we share this nice, tender morning moment.

After we finish breakfast, I decide that we head on over to Route 2 to continue our training. On the way there, however, I spot something over to the left of the Pokemon Center. A PokeMart, right next to the big, red building. "Hey, team. See that building? I'm gonna go check it out, see if there's anything I need in there." I tell them, pointing to the PokeMart as I start walking towards it. Chell, ever so curious, asks me about the building as we change our course for the time being. "What would you need in there, Mister Jay?" She asks, tugging on my leg to get my attention. "Well, I can use this stuff, called money by most," I start, holding up some dollar bills from my wallet. "To exchange for other things that are important to us humans, like food or drink." I reply, sliding the money back into my wallet, and the wallet back into my pocket. "I don't really get why you humans even do these things. Why do you even make easy things like finding food complicated?" Alita asks, clearly not used to seeing regular human activities. "Well, it's this complicated because it ends up making life easier for us. If you haven't noticed, we humans don't exactly have the power to set things on fire, or create storms of leaves from nothing. So, it makes finding and catching food really hard on us. We end up relying on what we build to help us do things, like find food, get water, and share information." I explain, causing Alita's facial expression to grow more confused than before.

"I don't get it." She shakes her head in confusion, not really unable to grasp the concept of buying things. Meanwhile, I notice two things. One, Nesia's been quietly listening to my explanation. Two, Katrina's trying to swipe my wallet from out of my pocket with her tail. "Kat, don't take that. I kinda need that for things." I sigh, gently grabbing her extended tail as it snakes into my pants pocket. She yelps in surprise at my sudden pulling of her tail, before she quickly retracts her appendage. "A shame. I was quite close to obtaining it, too." She sighs with a playful smirk as I shake my head. "Well, maybe not this time." I wiggle a finger, smirking back at her. With that little conundrum out of the way, I return my attention to Nesia. "So, I couldn't help but notice how attentive you were in listening to me. Ya found that really interesting, huh?" I ask, seeing her give a nod in response. She looks a little surprised to see that I noticed her listening in, though. "Yes. I want to learn more." She replies, getting a smile out of me in response. "It's nice to see your positive state of mind towards learning, Ness." She looks a mite confused by my short form of her name. "Ness?" She blinks, not really expecting me to call her that. "Yeah, Ness. I'm a little lazy, so I'm sorry if I call you that sometimes." I explain, the answer not really appealing to her. She doesn't voice her complaints, though, opting to keep her mouth shut. Seems like getting her to try and talk to me isn't going to work. "But if you weren't lazy, you wouldn't have to call her that, Mister Jay." Chell replies, causing me to frown in mock hurtfulness. "But I'm not lazy, I'm just too lazy for that…" I whine, causing her to giggle at my antics. "Yeah Mister Jay, you're kinda lazy. I wake up so much earlier than you!" She adds, letting me whine further. "Really, Chell? Aw, come on. I'm not that lazy, am I?" I look towards Alita and Katrina, hoping for some backup.

Unfortunately, they're not on my side. "Well, you were the first one to suggest the idea of sleeping in for the day…" Katrina trails off, hinting oh-so-obviously at the fact that she was in complete agreement with the two. "Sorry, idiot. But you're on your own for this fight, and it looks like you're on the losing side." Alita smirks, making it crystal clear that she wouldn't be supporting me any time soon. I sigh in defeat, having been completely bested by my Pokemon partners. "Damn it, you guys…" I mumble, getting a laugh or smile out of all of them as they revel in their verbal victory. They win this round, but I'll get them back soon. Muahahahaha!

My quest for petty vengeance aside, we soon find ourselves in the cooling, calm music playing environment of the local PokeMart. I look over to the team, motioning them to come closer with a cough to get their attention. "Listen up, team. The people around here are pretty sensitive about Pokemon entering their establishments, so stick close, alright?" The team complies without much of a protest, staying close to me as I navigate the halls of the sizeable building. I get a few stares directed my way, due to my Pokemon out of their Pokeballs, but I pay them no mind as I search the mall to find my end goal. Soon enough, after picking up a few Pokeballs and some Potions, I come across what I'm looking for: a row of computers, each one a nice shade of color as I browse the isle of technology. This peaks Chell's interest, as usual. "What are those?" She asks, making me see the meme in my head playing as I stifle a chuckle. "Those are computers, a device we humans use for many, many things." Noticing Nesia's interest, I continue my sentence. "One of those uses is to search for information, which is why I'm buying one of these things." I finish, taking note of Nesia's well hidden look of excitement towards the small, rectangular devices. Alita, however, is most disbelieving. "How can any of these have any use at all? They're only a bunch of thin boxes." She scoffs, causing me to roll my eyes while I throw a smirk her way. "Be patient, oh ye of little faith. You'll see soon enough what this thing can do." I assure her, picking up the silver one and the charging port for it, along with a few cables to link to other devices. Walking over to the cashier at the front of the store, I take out my wallet to pay the guy the necessary cash.

"That'll be forty eight hundred, sir."He drones, his voice quite monotonous as I hand him the money. I feel an ache in my heart as I look at my thinner wallet, sighing as I withdraw the leather cash holder into my pocket. "Thank you, sir. Have a nice day." He mumbles as I leave, walking past the slider doors to get out of there. Stuffing the computer into my bag, I lead my team away from the city, straight back off to Route 2, hoping to find myself some easy fights to train up my team. As we near the Route's entrance, I shrug nervously. "Welp, here's hoping we don't run into anything too hard to fight around here." I chuckle, although Chell and Alita both seem more than confident enough to fight whatever's lurking out here. "Oh, please! We can take on whatever decides to mess with us!" Alita boasts, while Chell brandishes her scalchop. "Yeah, Mister Jay! We can do this!" She assures me, looking ready to dish out some damage. Well, they did beat Pokemon that Jimmy paid out the ass for, so I think we can take on whatever's in this forest. There's not much that could even come close to fighting off Jimmy's Pokemon in these woods, so what could go wrong?

Five minutes later, I find my recent thought further supported by the shitload of weak Patrat everywhere. "Ugh, this is the fifth time I've seen one of you bastards around here!" I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose as we encounter another Patrat stupid enough to challenge our group on its own. Katrina was rather hesitant to fight the rat bastards in the beginning, with the most recent encounter involving them and all, but a few more run-ins with them allowed her to get used to seeing them around the damn place.

"Who wants a shot this time?" I ask, immediately seeing Chell's enthusiasm as she stands her ground in front of the opposing rodent and whips out her scalchop, a water blade already formed from the opening of the shell. "I'm ready, Mister Jay!" She grins, looking ready to put her blade swinging skills to the test again. Sighing, I smirk as I shrug towards the direction of a miffed looking Alita. "Looks like Chell's taken the initiative this time." I point out the obvious, while Alita looks like she's not going to have any of this crap. "Oh, come on! I wanted to fight this time!" She protests. "I would have let you fight, but considering you've fought for the past two time in a row already, I'd rather let Chell give this a try."

Although she still looks rather upset about not being able to commence battle with the opponent, she stays put on my shoulder, my counter argument proving to be very much true. Katrina and Chell fought one time each, while she took out two Patrat in a row. Although I like her eagerness to fight, I need to allow the others to gain the battle experience as well. Nesia wasn't really willing to go with the whole battling thing, so she hadn't fought a single time. I guess the bad memories of Jimmy the asshole proved to be more than enough of a motivator to prevent her from fighting.

Anyways, back to the fight that's unfolding right now. "Chell, use Water Gun!" I command, Chell quickly following through with a few quick blasts of water. The water shots hit their intended target, making the Patrat stumble. "Now, use Razor Shell to end this!" Chell follows up with a couple quick diagonal slices to cut the rodent, causing some good damage. Now fully aware that it was getting it's ass handed to it, the Patrat glares at us before leaving quickly, retreating into the bushes. "Nice combo, Chell." I hold my hand up for a high five-well, it's a mite low for me-for Chell to connect her paw with. "Thanks! I sure showed him!" She whoops as her paw connects with my hand, enjoying her win. Meanwhile, I hear Alita grumbling on my shoulder. "I could have beaten that Patrat easy…"

"Eh, you'll get to fight eventually. Lots more Pokemon in this forest, ya know." I tell her, which does cause her to regain some fighting spirit. "You better let me fight the next one." She replies, causing me to sigh. At least she's not showing a lack of the will to fight. Chell, still content about her recent win, starts to have a chat with Alita. Meanwhile, Katrina decides to engage in conversation with Nesia. As for me, I'm thinking about having the team work on and possibly improve some moves.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

[Jay]

A few minutes, and a few more Patrat fights later, I find myself staring past the initial line of trees that separate the dirt path from the forest. Right past the trees, I can make out a clearing if I focus on the spot enough. My squinting requires concentration, so I unconsciously stop my footsteps to stare. This, of course, catches the undivided attention of the team. "Ow!" Chell yelps as she had been staring at something else, her face accidentally making some undesired intimacy with my leg. Alita, who's been spacing out up until that point, screeches in surprise as my sudden stop creates enough momentum to throw her off her perch on my shoulder. Nesia is also caught off guard, as she quickly slips and falls off my shoulder along with Alita.

Before both victims of gravity can slam face first into the dirt below, I act quickly. Taking both hands out of my pockets, I reach out to grab the two falling Pokemon, my outstretched hands catching them mid fall. As they make contact with the palm of my hand, I make sure to move my hands downward slowly to lower their initial speed and minimize the damage they suffer from my catch. Katrina is relatively unfazed, as her quick reflexes allow her to stay out of harm's way. Meanwhile, I breathe a sigh of relief when I manage to save the two from falling.

Alita, however, isn't all too pleased with my most recent mess up. "What the hell, you idiot!? Do you want me to die?" She glares at me, her voice brimming with unbridled rage as she makes her complaints known. It's right now that I notice that her heart's beating pretty fast, along with Nesia's. That's expected, though, with the sudden danger and shock from falling. "Mister Jay, that hurt…" Chell whines, clutching the side of her face in pain. "That was rather undesirable." Katrina plainly notes, licking her paw in her sitting stance as her gaze towards me seems to show some disappointment.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, girls. I'll try not to let that happen again." Sagging my shoulders, I apologize, my head hanging a mite lower than usual as I say so. Katrina seems to accept my apology, nodding her head slightly as she casually gets up and slinks on over to my leg. "Apology accepted, Jay." She smiles her usual smile. "It's okay, Mister Jay! It didn't hurt that much, really!" Chell smiles back, her wide grin returning as she shakes off her minor injury. Alita sighs, catching my attention for the moment. "Just tell me when you stop and stare next time, idiot." She uses her wings to fly back up to her shoulder perch and slaps me upside the head again. Looks like she's let me off the hook, as well.

Nesia hasn't so much as uttered a sound, still preferring to stay quiet as she recovers from the shock of being so violently dropped like that. Her heart's slowed down by now, but she's still looking a bit shaken up. Seeing her like this really makes me feel like a dick now… "Uh, you okay there, Ness? You're not looking too good." I ask, my smile quickly fading as a concerned frown takes its place. Nesia looks up at me, surprised for some reason as she sees my facial expression. I don't look that bad when I'm concerned, do I? Her eyes widen, but quickly return to their normal, distant and half-lidded stare. "I'm fine." She quickly replies, shaking off her shock quickly.

I'm not convinced, but I think it's wise not to pry into matters as of right now. "Okay then, if you say so." I shrug, my grin returning as I hoist her up onto my shoulder again, waiting for her to balance herself on my shoulder blade. Once she's positioned in a steady spot, I start to walk towards the thin forest line again, this time at a slower pace as I brush away stray branches with my hand. From the sound of it, Chell and Katrina aren't far behind, as I can hear the steady swiping of Chell's scalchop and the light falling sounds of leafy branches hitting the forest floor.

Once we step past the underbrush of the forest, we find ourselves standing in a sizeable clearing, with a few stumps of former trees still rooted to the ground. Staring at this clearing in the forest, I quickly figure out some basic methods of training. The trees stumps are unevenly spaced apart, with the stumps of varying sizes. There are a few thick tree stumps around here, though. "Why are we here anyway? All I see are tree stumps." Alita interjects, the look on her features telling me that she wants to fight some more. Chell looks around in confusion, while Katrina's face remains neutral. Nesia looks around us, her expression unchanging as well. They're all not sure of my motives here, so I should give them a little rundown of what I'm thinking.

Using my arms to help the two shoulder riders off onto the ground, I sit down and start to explain myself. "Well, I figured that some practice would really help out with your attacks, so here we are. What you're going to be doing for a while around here is hitting those stumps over there as hard and for as long as you can." I tell them, gesturing to the former trees around us. Alita and Chell look at me incredulously, while Katrina and Nesia remain silent, listening with interest. "How does hitting these things non-stop help us get any better at fighting?" She asks, her voice clearly showing her disbelief. "I think Ali's right, Mister Jay. How does this help us get stronger?" Chell inquires, not too faithful in this plan herself.

"I know that it sounds like a really dumb idea now, but I promise you, it'll pay off. Do you trust me?" I ask them back, stopping their arguments for a moment. Chell says her opinion first, nodding firmly as she voices her thoughts. "If you say so, Mister Jay, then I trust you!" She grins, her belief in me and my choice plain to see. Katrina's the next to speak up, nodding slightly as she says so. "You haven't betrayed me as of yet, so I see no reason to distrust you." She replies, her smile now more supportive and reassuring of my decision. Alita ponders on the thought for a while, before resigning and following the tide with a sigh. "Fine, I'll trust you on this one." She tells me, taking off and hovering in front of me as she too puts her trust in me.

Well, at least they're willing to go with me on this one. "Thanks, team." I reply, smiling in thanks for their compliance. We're not the best team now, and I doubt that we ever will be, but it never hurt to try your hardest and attempt to get the dream going. "Alright. Chell, you get the stump on the far right. Alita, you can use the stump over to the left there. Katrina, you can smack the one over to the right of Ali's. Give it all you've got, and don't hold back. We all know that your opponent won't hold back on you, so you shouldn't either. Use any attacks you feel like, and keep at it for as long as you can keep dishing out moves. Let's go, team!" I explain the basic objective of today, and send the team off to their training with some encouragement mixed in.

"You got it, Mister Jay!" Chell puts a paw to her chest, smacking her scalchop with it in confidence before she moves on over to her side of the clearing. "I'm on it!" Alita smirks, quickly flying over to her stump and swooping down to Peck it without mercy. "Understood." Katrina nods before sprinting right at her designated piece of wood, using her usual combination of Pursuit and Scratch to strike quickly and repeatedly. She's also throwing in a few kicks from her deft hind legs, which creates some distance from her target each time. Looking back over to the other two, I can see that Chell's using her scalchop to start off, slashing away at the tree stump in sloppy, but quick strikes. Alita's using her usual bout of Peck and Air Cutter, blades of air flying from her wings and towards the stump. The first thing I can see is that she's trying to aim her attack so it hits with more accuracy, as she's sporting a look of concentration that I usually don't see when she performs her attacks. However, her blades all miss the one thing she's supposed to hit, all slicing at the ground around her target and kicking up a dust cloud. The next thing I notice is that she's firing a smaller amount of blades in the general direction of her target, the dust kicked up from this particular storm of blades not as much as the other times I've seen her do this. At least she's starting to get the hang of saving energy.

Looking at the three of them slicing, scratching and cutting away at their respective stumps, I decide to leave them to their own devices, opting to test out my new computer. Seeing Nesia staring at them as well, I lightly tap her on the head, getting her attention as well as my fair share of her stare that I've starting to get used to. "What is it?" She asks, her gaze unchanging and her facial expression almost unreadable. "Wanna join me? I'm going to use my computer for a bit, and I was hoping you'd join me. You're probably not going to join the other girls in training, so I was thinking that you'd be interested, seeing as how you were so willing to listen when I bought it." I suggest, the Snivy's eyes widening in surprise. Judging from the look on her face, she probably didn't expect for me to even remember that she had a learning interest to begin with.

"Hmm? What's that look for?" I grin, taking note of her shocked expression. Her facial expression quickly returns to normal, but she still is rather confused in terms of my odd behavior, as evidenced by her next statement. "I didn't think you'd remember." She admits, causing me to sigh as I pat her head. "Of course I'd remember what you said, silly. What kind of trainer would I be if I didn't listen to the voices of my team?" I reply, my grin only growing wider as her eyes widen for a second, before her expression once again returns to a more neutral one. "Thank you." She mumbles, looking at me with her usual stare as she expresses her gratitude. However, I shake my head when she says so. "Thanks aren't required, Ness. It's what I'm supposed to do." I tell her as I sit down on one of the stumps, a considerable distance away from the training trio of Pokemon as I take my newly bought laptop out of my backpack and flip it open. Placing it on my lap, I use both hands to gently pick up the little grass snake and put her in my lap, allowing her to gain access to the device as well.

She stares at the inside of the device in wonder, quite perplexed and amazed at the assortment of keys and the black screen that greet her vision. "How does this work?" She asks, not sure about the inner workings of something like this. Chuckling, I begin my explanation of basic computer operation. "You see, right now the computer is off. If ya wanna use it, you have to turn it on first." I turn on the power to the laptop, the screen lighting up and showing the default homepage of a snow capped mountain. Nesia's eyes light up, immediately captivated by the piece of almost magical machinery before her. Chuckling at her interest, I continue my explanation.

"This is the mouse pad. You can move this little thingy on the screen here, called the cursor with it. Just swipe along the surface of the pad, and the cursor moves." I demonstrate, using my finger to move the cursor to the icon of the local internet browser. "This is something we call an icon. You can click on icons by tapping the mouse pad's left side. This is called left clicking. Left clicking an icon twice opens it." I explain, opening up the icon with two quick taps on the mouse pad. Immediately, the browser opens up, showing the browser's homepage. Moving my cursor to the bottom part of the computer, I use the cursor to point at the icon showing the WiFi signal. "However, using the browser like this needs something called the internet. This icon is like this because we have internet. If not, the icon should be replaced with a red cross, meaning you can't use the browser to search things. You got all that?" She nods in response, taking in all this information quite well.

"Now, we can use browsers like this one to surf the web." Nesia tilts her head in confusion. "Surf the web?" She repeats, not familiar with the newer term. "It means to search for things on the internet. Now, this here is the keyboard section, where you type in words to search for stuff." I tell her, gesturing to the keys with a hand. "Now, if I want to search for food, I just type in the food I want to search. Left click on the search button here to confirm your choice of words." I type out the word 'food' onto the search bar after clicking on it, and hitting the search button next to the search bar. Almost immediately, a bunch of website names pop up, each blue and underlined, much to Nesia's surprise. "These are links. You can left click on one to enter the website you want." Looking back from the computer to her, I can see that she's been staring at the keyboard for the longest time. I'm about to ask her what she was staring at, before I mentally face palm upon realizing something. Of fucking course. She's a POKEMON, for God's sake! Of course she can't read much of these words, being stuck in a lab for the longest time. She's probably never been exposed to books, or anything of the sort, so this may end up being an issue.

"Next, I'm going to teach you how to type in words that you can use to search for things. Can't really use a computer if ya don't know how to type, eh?" I sigh, catching her attention as she stares at each of the keys. What I didn't expect to happen next, however, was for her to use her extended vines to maneuver the cursor onto the search bar and type in the word 'computer' onto the screen in a flash. "…So you can understand words, huh?" I realize, mumbling out my own thought faster than I could stop it. "Of course. I was raised in a lab." Nesia states, quite matter-of-factly and making me feel really fucking stupid. On the bright side, this saves me lots of time teaching her that I could spend on other things. On the downside, I need to remember to delete my internet history.

"Use it for as long as you'd like. This thing can last for quite a while. If you're stumped on how to use it, don't hesitate to ask." I joke, getting her to nod halfheartedly before she looks my way and stares, her eyelids drooping lower than usual in an annoyed manner. "No. No puns." She bluntly shuts me down, stopping my pun dispensing before it begins. "You're no fun, you know that?" I frown and pout in an exaggerated manner. My over the top gesture gets her to smile this time, albeit the smile being a mite too small for my taste. However, it's the size of the smile that makes it cute all at the same time. Still, this is a pretty good sign. This means that she's starting to trust me, however small that trust may be for now.

Lifting the laptop and Nesia, I place both onto the tree stump, leaving Nesia to her own devices while I walk on over to the nearest tree at the edge of the clearing. Looking up, I can see a rather long and thick branch hanging just out of reach from the ground. Grabbing a hold of it and pulling down, I decide that this tree branch can indeed hold my weight. I then use my arms to lift me up onto the branch, using my legs to dangle myself upside down from the tree. From this upside down position, I can see Chell still hacking away at the stump, while Alita is launching many an air blade at her stump, still trying to get more consistent damage in than the occasional accidental hit. Katrina is using her attacks in as quick a pace as she can muster, but her lack of a ranged option is rather worrying.

For now, though, I'm more focused on doing some exercise myself. Using my strength, I lift my upper body so that my upper body is now bent upwards, almost touching my legs. Lowering myself slowly, I repeat this action as many times as I can, quickly resulting in exhaustion of my torso and my lower legs. I unhook my legs from the tree, using my hands to stop my face from crashing into the dirt. Then, using my arms, I lift myself up higher with my hands grasping the branch, coming back down once my head and neck goes above the branch. Repeating this motion, I quickly tire out my arms, the muscles now spent of most of their energy. Dropping down from the tree, I get into a squatting position, keeping my legs apart while I lower and raise my upper body by bending and straightening my legs. I'm sweating and breathing a little heavier now, my arms and legs feeling like they're on fire. Finishing one more squat, I consider my exercise session to be done for now and stand upright, letting myself rest up for a while.

With my head now back upright, I can now get a better view of how the team's getting on with their respective training sessions. Chell and Katrina are working up a sweat, both really putting their backs into it as they cut and slash away at the offending pieces of wood in front of them. Their coats are starting to get soaked, their breathing growing fast and ragged as they cut into the stumps, cleaving away more and more bits off the wood with each strike. "Argh! Why can't I hit you!?" Hearing an outburst of rage out of nowhere, I turn in the direction of the shout to see Alita looking at her stump with a fiery rage and determination, as her stump remains more or less untouched by her aerial attacks. She doesn't seem as tired as the other two, but her wobbly flying and her breathing tells me that her wings are already straining to keep her airborne. Her tired wings are also interfering with her ability to use other, more close range attacks like her Peck, which keeps on missing the stump by a mile. They stop pretty soon, with Chell collapsing into a heap onto the dirt, Katrina sitting down to catch her breath as she ceases her movements, and Alita, unable to keep herself in the air, starts to glide towards the ground, landing on her stump as she rests up for a bit.

Sighing, I walk on over to the team as they rest up. Alita looks like she could use some pointers about how to aim her Air Cutter attacks, at least. I appreciate the amount of seriousness they're showing in training, but at this rate, they'll just end up tiring themselves out real fast in fights. What to do, what to do…


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

[Jay]

"Heya, Chell. How's training coming along?" As I casually walk on over to greet the tired Oshawott, I try to figure out how she thinks she's doing, so I get a better idea of what advice to give her. As I sit down, I can see just how tired she is after a simple bout of swinging her scalchop around. She's breathing pretty hard, and her fur is now drenched, sticking to her like she had walked out in the rain for a good while. She's also breathing pretty hard, implicating that she's used up most of her energy already. Nevertheless, she looks up at me and greets me with the biggest smile I've ever seen. "It's going great, Mister Jay! I'm really tired, but I think I'm making progress!" She beams, pointing to her stump with a paw.

I chuckle in response to her enthusiasm, using my hand to mess up the fur on her head, paying no mind to the wet, soggy feel of her sweaty fur as I do so. "Stop it, Mister Jay!" She giggles in response to the light teasing, swatting away my hand with a light smack of her scalchop. "That's great, kid. Now, I'm going to take a closer look at the stump you carved up, 'kay? I'll see if I can't give you some tips." Taking a look at the stump, I can see a lot of decently sized, diagonal and horizontal cuts along the surface of the wood. However, when I walk on over to the stump and use my finger to feel along the cuts, I raise an eyebrow in confusion. I find it odd, that the cuts I'm feeling are rather wide for the kind of blade that Chell uses. The cuts are made at an odd angle, too. "Hey Chell, can you hand me your blade for a sec? I wanna check something out over here." Chell quickly makes her way over to me, handing me her trusty scalchop with the blade extended from the shell's opening. I take the blade, and hold it up to one of the numerous cuts on the stump, putting the sharp edge of the blade into the gash. As I try to move the blade from side to side in the cut, my suspicions are proven to be true. The gash doesn't cut too deep, and the angle of which she is cutting is the cause of that.

"Chell, take a look at this." I motion for her to come on over, which she complies to without question. Using her blade, I make my own gash along one of the untouched areas of the stump with her blade. Holding her scalchop in my hand, I make a vertical cut downwards along the stump. The blade penetrates the wood with ease, leaving an indent deeper than the rest of the cuts. The cut is also smaller in width, due to the more precise angle that I'm cutting at. "Gimme your paw, kiddo. I want you to feel this." Tapping the bark where the vertical cut is close to one of Chell's cuts, I gently take Chell's paw and place it against the cut she made, and then placing it against the cut I made, both made with the same blade.

"Do you feel anything different, kiddo?" I ask her, Chell immediately nodding in response. "I do! Your cut is thinner than mine." She states, taking the scalchop from my hand as she tells me. As she takes it and places it back on her chest, I grab her attention by tapping her on the head with a finger. "I noticed you slashing at the stump, and I couldn't help but notice how quickly you were cutting at it. Why were you swinging your sword around so fast, anyway?" I ask her, seeing her scrunch up her face in thought when she hears my question. "I don't know, actually. I think I just wanted to do more damage faster." She replies after a while of thought, to which I nod in understanding. "I get that, but think about it like this. Do you think that a lot of careless, shallow gashes would win you the match? Or would a few precise, deep slices get you the win instead? Which do you think would be more effective against your opponent?" I ask her, allowing her to think for herself as I walk off to take a bottle of water from my backpack.

As I open up the bottle and take a sip, I sit back down next to Chell, handing her the bottle as she keeps thinking about what I had asked her. "Here ya go, Chell. You need to drink up, or else you'll dry yourself out real quick." Chell quickly takes the bottle, eyeing it like she would eye a piece of food on her plate as she puts the bottle to her mouth and greedily gulps down the water handed to her. In no time at all, she had already washed down half the bottle. She sighs happily as she puts down the water bottle, letting me pick it back up. "Thanks, Mister Jay!" She thanks me as I take a look at the remaining contents of the bottle, sighing as I drink up myself. "Geez, someone was thirsty, eh?" I reply in a sarcastic manner, taking another couple of sips from the bottle myself.

"So, about the question I asked you. Did ya come up with an answer yet?" Upon hearing my question, she shakes her head. "I don't know. I think that both ways would work well." She replies, to which I grin, patting her on the head. "Great answer, kid. You're quite right. In truth, both would work well, but they would work best when used together." She really surprised me with that one to be honest. I hadn't really expected her to work that one out like she did. She grins at the praise, really melting into my ministrations. Her head is pushing into my hand, as if trying to get me to pet her harder as she lets out a satisfied hum. "You've already gotten the fast part down, but your precision could be improved." I tell her, walking over to the stump and tapping it lightly with a finger. "For now, just stop trying to attack quickly. Instead, try relaxing and cutting deeper with each strike. Then, when you're able to do that, try cutting deep and fast at the same time. Got that?" She smiles and nods in confirmation, quickly getting up and readying her scalchop again. "You got it, Mister Jay! I'll try my best!" She replies, quickly returning her attention to the tree stump.

"I know you will, kiddo. Just don't try too hard, 'kay? Last thing I want to see happening is you hurting yourself." I tell her before I leave, getting up and walking on over to check up on Katrina. Upon my arrival, I can see that she's stopped resting and has picked up the pace again, returning to her pattern of attacking with a combo of Pursuit and Scratch. She's using her chain of attacks at a relatively fast speed as well, relentlessly striking the unfortunate stump over and over again with her close range moves. As I take a closer look at the small feline, I can see that her expression is calm as usual, but her eyes show me a different side of her. Her gaze is cold and calculating, but also holds a fiery aura of determination. She is also completely focused on her target, not letting up her assault. Every now and then, her deft back legs give the stump a swift kick, creating some distance between them, before she quickly rushes at the stump again, resuming her attacks.

From what I can see, though, her moves are predictable to a certain degree. She's not really trying to make her movement more varied, save for her angles of attacking. However, that may be due to the fact that she's fighting a stationary opponent that won't fight back, instead of an actual enemy. As I sit down next to the swiftly moving Purrloin, I keep a close eye on her, checking to see if I can't find some other points that I can give her some advice on. The only thing that stands out to me the most is her eyes. Those two orbs are focused on the task at hand, constantly monitoring the target, while at the same time they make minute shifts from the left to the right during a reprise in her attacking, like she's checking her surroundings.

This pattern of her eye movement really surprises me. She's already developed a strong sense of awareness, which is really vital for any fight. Her ears are also twitching as she moves around, no doubt being used to detect any alien sounds around her. To sum it all up, she's quite impressive, if I do say so myself. The only flaw that I can see for now is the lack of a ranged move for her to use, as every kick that she uses during her combo, it almost seems to break up her chain of attacks, forcing her to rush back in if she wants to keep hacking away at the stump. That kinda blows, but at least her speed is high. Her maintaining of focus is also pretty good as well, as she always switches up her angle of attack whenever she lands the hit on a certain side more than a few times.

However, what happens next is…unexpected, to say the least. Katrina leaps up into the air to deliver another Pursuit attack, her paw glowing a faint grayish black. However, as she lands the hit, her front leg suddenly bends at the joint. She cries out in pain as her paw loses its glow, her inability to straighten her leg causing her to fall to the ground in a heap. She curls up into a ball once she hits the ground, unable to do much besides cradle her leg in pain with her other legs.

Sitting right there beside her, I notice immediately, rushing quickly to her aid. Putting both my hands on her body, I gently try to get her to straighten up, so that I can get a better look at her injury. When she refuses to, I reach out my left hand to rub her back, trying to get her to relax. "It's going to be okay, Kat. I can help, but I can't if you don't show me that leg of yours." My coaxing seems to work, as her body relaxes, allowing her to straighten out and leave her injured leg out in the open. Taking a closer look, I don't see any external injuries to the limb, meaning that the cause of this is most likely internal. "I'm going to move your leg now, so tell me if something starts hurting." She gives a nod, letting me slowly move her leg to straighten it. As I get halfway through the action, she gives a pained hiss, clenching her teeth as her face contorts into an expression of pain.

"Well, it looks like you've got a cramp, Kat." I tell her, causing her to let out a sigh. "Is there any way you could hopefully rid me of it?" She asks, her neutral expression returning as I return her leg to a bent position. "Well, I have an idea that should work, but I should tell you in advance that you may not like it at first." She thinks for a while, considering the offer before she nods, her mind made up. "If it solves the problem, I would be more than willing to give it a try." Hearing her answer, I gently reach a hand out to hold her leg. "Alright, then. Before I begin, I should tell you that this method also works as a great stress reliever." And so, Katrina's special treatment begins as my hands get to work.

Not even a minute later…

"Ah! Jay, please do be less forceful with me." The Purrloin gasps, tensing up slightly under my treatment of her. "Geez, Kat. Didn't I tell you enough before? If you want this to work, then you're going to have to relax and let me in." I sigh, stopping myself from moving. "However, this is my first time experiencing something like this, so please be gentle." She breathes, letting me resume what I was doing as she relaxes, still laying down on the ground. "Heh, don't worry about that, Kat. It's my first time doing this, too. Alright, I'm moving back in. Just calm down, and breathe in…and out…" I soothe, allowing my hands to close in on the feline below me once more.

"Nnngh…It hurts…" Katrina seethes, letting out a hiss when I apply some pressure. "I know it does, but it'll feel good soon enough, Kat. Just relax, and let me do my thing." I reply, gently rubbing her to get her to loosen up. It kind of works, as the part I'm rubbing slowly starts to relax. "See? It's working already." I tell her, as I feel her loosen up a little more as my rubbing continues. "But…you're doing it so roughly…" She pants, sweat trickling down her small frame as I let out another sigh.

"But I thought that I told you that to loosen up your muscles, a massage was necessary! It has to be forceful, or else your muscles aren't going to let up for a while." I tell her, kneading her leg with my fingers, being careful not to accidentally break her leg bone while I'm at it. Tracing her leg from her shoulder to her ankle with a couple of fingers, I apply some pressure to the lag as I move along. What? What did you think I was doing to her? Slowly but surely, my efforts on her leg muscles start to pay off. She's now completely relaxed, allowing me to knead her muscles with a little more force without complaint. "You're still a bit sweaty from the attack exercise from just now, huh?" I ask her, kind of feeling some sweat on my fingers as I continue to apply pressure to her leg. However, she seems to be quite far away from the threshold of reality right now. She purrs dreamily, giving me a half-hearted affirmative noise that's drawn out as I continue to tend to her. When I'm done, I pull my hands away from her, seeing her snap back to her senses. When she realizes that the massage is over, she almost looks saddened, her eyelids drooping a little lower in dejection as she sighs.

"Are you finished already?" She asks, the look on her face hoping for a specific negative answer, her true desires locked away behind the vault that is her tone of voice. However, that's not what she hears from me. "Yup, I'm done. That leg of yours should be all better, now." I nod, seeing her ears droop low as she hangs her head slightly. I wait for her to request the thing that she wants from me the most right now, but she doesn't ask. Well, that means she's still a little hesitant about the whole asking favors of me thing. I kinda find that to be a little strange, to be honest. You'd think that after the deal I made with her, she wouldn't be a stranger to asking favors from me at all.

As she gets up to most likely return to her training, I quickly come to a mental consensus about what to do next, my next choice of action quite obvious. "Hey Kat, I'd like you to come over here for a second." She pauses in her tracks and looks back to me, obviously not expecting me to call her over. Still, she slinks over and sits down next to me without question. Without so much as a warning, I scoop her up and place her into my lap, my crossed legs allowing her to quickly gain footing and gaze up at me in shock. "What are you-" She's quickly cut off by my hand gently stroking her back, causing her to tense up immediately upon contact of her coat with my hand, but she quickly relaxes into my touch, making a small purring noise. Perfect. She's all set for Phase 2 of my plan. Reaching one hand up to her head, I gently apply some pressure to the top of her head, my fingers holding her head as my thumb aims for a particular spot next to her ears.

The touch works like magic. It doesn't take long before Katrina melts completely in my touch, both of my hands now focused on massaging her collarbone, then back to her head. I repeat the motions, switching between the two spots every once in a while. For as long as my massage lasts, Katrina maintains a content look on her face, smiling happily as she mewls and purrs loudly. It only lasts for a short while, but as soon as I pull my hands away from her body, she still lies there, panting and face flushed as she looks up at her assailant. "That felt real nice, didn't it? You really needed that one." I chuckle as she gets up into her usual sitting position, looking at me with a confused expression. "Listen, if you ever want something from me, don't hesitate to ask. No matter what you need, I'll always try my best to help you, 'kay?" Her eyes widen for a bit, before she smiles and nods. "Thank you." She tells me, looking quite happy as she beams at me. Her smile this time around is different. It's not her usual smile she wears, it's…happier. More genuine.

"No problem, Kat. Now, quit training for now and rest up, alright? If you'd like, you can join Nesia and mess around with the computer for a bit. Your leg may be fine now, but you still should rest for a while to keep it from acting up again." I smile back, gesturing to the Snivy typing away on the computer I handed to her. She nods in reply, although her smile has already reverted back to its usual, lazy counterpart. As she gets off my lap and starts moving on over to join Nesia, I decide to check up on Alita. It doesn't take long to find her, as she's the only other Pokemon in the clearing, but it seems she's still having trouble aiming her Air Cutter. From how it looks from here, she's been trying for a while. I watch her launch a volley of blades at the tree stump, most of which end up missing as they hit the ground around it. Some blades do make contact with the stump, which means she's making progress.

She doesn't seem to notice that herself, though. She looks really frustrated right now, descending from her spot in the sky to land on the ground. Seeing me next to her, she lets out a sigh. "It's not working, Jay." She muses, looking disappointed. Confused, I raise an eyebrow. "What's not working?" She looks at me fully now, fiery anger plain to see in her eyes. "My aim, you idiot! I'm just not hitting the damn thing, no matter how hard I try!" She yells at me, clearly frustrated, before she looks down again. "Maybe I should just give up." She mumbles, her voice now sounding defeated as her head hangs low.

Hearing this, my smile dissipates as I quickly use my hand to lift her head up as I look her in the eyes, getting a little pissed myself. She looks shocked to see me like this, as she's never really seen me get serious at anything before. However, what I say next is spoken calmly. "Remember what you promised me, Ali?" I ask her, causing her to flinch before she retaliates, her eyes narrowing. "Of course I do! I promised that I would try my best! But look now! It's not working, Jay! It won't ever work, either!" She fumes, quite certain that she has failed in her task. However, I'm not about to let her own opinion of herself stoop that low. "Is that true? Or is it what you're just telling yourself to believe, to give yourself an excuse to give up?" I ask her, my serious demeanor unchanging, even in the face of her rage.

Hearing this, she quickly stops in her anger, eyes widening as she looks at me. "What?" The word spills forth from her mouth, as she sounds surprised to hear this. "You heard me." As she mulls it over, her expression softens as she looks down again, looking guilty this time. Now that she's calmed down she'll be able to hear what I have to tell her. "You may not believe in yourself, but I do. The world can stop believing in you for all I care, but I'll still believe in you. Never forget that, okay?" As she hears this, she looks at me with wide eyes. "Jay, I...I-" Before she can finish, she's cut short by the volley of star-shaped projectiles headed our way, which I quickly notice. I grab her and roll out of the way, for the stars to hit the tree behind us.

Looking back at the tree that now has a few deep cuts in it, I look at Alita, still cradled in my arms. "You okay?" I ask Alita, getting her to nod. Looking at my assailant, I see a Watchog, with a group of Patrat trailing behind it. They all look really pissed, which probably means that they're out for a fight. Uh oh…


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

[Jay]

"So, I have good news and bad news. Which do you wanna hear first?" I ask the Pidove beside me. "What's the bad news?" Alita asks, while her sight is glued to the Patrat troupe now surrounding us. "Well, the bad news is that there's a lot of 'em." I reply, causing Alita to sigh in exasperation as she looks at me. "Oh, ya think!?" She snaps, before she returns their attention to the group of rodents. "The good news, is that they're Patrat, so we may have a chance to beat them." I finish, not letting any Patrat on my end leave my sight range. I may not be a battle tactician, but I don't think that this is the best position to be in right now. On top of that, the team isn't in the best shape right now, save for Nesia, who's only been using the computer.

The rodents facing off against us look real pissed, all baring their fangs as they stare us down, each one glaring at us angrily. The thing that stands out to me the most about the Watchog leading them, however, is the scar on its eye. Standing up as the rest of the team comes rushing to our aid, my usual smile returns as I quickly realize who this is. "Heya, buddy. How's that tail of yours doing?" I smirk and wave, causing the Watchog leading the group to snarl at me viciously. "What do you think, asshole!? This time, I'm going to get my revenge, and you're not getting away!" He yells, getting rather impatient as we stare each other down. Perfect. If he gets angrier, he's more likely to make some bad decisions on his part, which might just end up getting us the victory.

However, he smirks after his initial burst of anger, realizing quickly that he still has the advantage of strength in numbers. "It doesn't matter now. You can't possibly beat us if we attack you all at once!" My smile fades in an instant, as I realize just how deep a grave I've just dug for myself. "Ah, shit. Get ready, team! This is going to be a tough one!" I warn them, as they get into battle stances. "Charge forward! Beat the shit out of them!" The Watchog screams, commanding the Patrat as they run right at us, a brown seething mass of angry rodent. "Split up, team!" I quickly issue the command, the Pokemon quick to obey as they separate, Alita taking to the air.

The Patrat wave quickly slows to a halt, the group realizing that they haven't managed to tackle anything. Looking around, they quickly spot us to the sides of them, and react by splitting into smaller groups to take us on. Looking around, I just so happen to be with Nesia right now, the little grass snake somehow lodged into the fray with the rest of us. I quickly spot the remaining two standing together, Chell with her scalchop at the ready while Katrina is crouched low, gritting her teeth.

They've got numbers, but maybe we can win with some strategizing. "Chell, use Razor Shell on the Patrat that get too close! Katrina, use Pursuit to finish them off!" The Patrat try to pull off a group Tackle, but Chell and Katrina are quick to move out of the way. Chell wastes no time in using her scalchop to slice at the Patrat around her. Meanwhile, Katrina moves around them, using her Pursuit whenever she sees an opening. Meanwhile, I try to focus on avoiding the attacks the rodents are throwing my way, weaving between them as I keep Nesia safely tucked away in my arms. Focusing my attention to the air now, I can Alita looking down onto the situation from her aerial view, an indecisive look on her face.

From the looks of it, she really wants to help us out, but her lack of confidence in herself and her own abilities are holding her back. She wants to cut up those rat bastards so badly, but she's afraid of accidentally knocking out her own teammates. Maybe I can make it so that she can still help, even though her aim is kind of wonky. But how? Nesia probably isn't going to help out, and the rest of the team is already busy enough trying to fend off the opposition. The Watchog just watches from the sidelines, not even fighting alongside the rest of them. At least that's one less thing to worry about for now…

Chell's slices are hitting, but she's only hitting single targets, while the rest of the group manages to get past her offense and inflict some damage on her. Katrina's trying her best to knock out the Patrat, but there are simply too many of them, not allowing her much of an opportunity to land some hits in. This isn't good. If this keeps up, they'll both bite the dust. In order to win, they've gotta start working together a little better. But how? I quickly start moving my sightlines around the battlefield, trying to find a solution. Chell's attacks are aimed vertically, sending Patrat flying into the air and knocking them back, while Katrina attacks from the air instead, preferring to leap up into the air and slam down on unfortunate Patrat with Pursuit… Got it.

If they can't watch their own backs, then they've got to watch each other's backs. "Chell, use Water Gun to hit the ones closer to Katrina! Katrina, try and attack the ones Chell knocks back!" Chell is quick to follow up on the order, blasting a Patrat that tried to sink it's teeth into Katrina with a quick jet of water, knocking it back and away from Katrina. Meanwhile, Katrina manages to follow up on Chell's attack on one unfortunate Patrat. As Chell knocks it upwards with her scalchop, Katrina slams it into the ground again with Pursuit aimed at its back. The Patrat ends up face first in the dirt, leaving a slight indent in the ground as I hear the sound of flesh mercilessly slamming against the ground. Youch. That's gotta hurt…

However, the weakness to Chell's single targeting is quickly being made apparent, as she's now surrounded on all sides by Patrat. Also, I'm taking damage right now, as some Patrat manage to land a few bites and Tackles on me. Shit. If she's cornered like this, she won't be able to help Katrina out at all. She needs an area sweeping attack… Oh wait, she has her scalchop. Damn it, I'm such an idiot…

"Chell! Hold your scalchop in front of you and spin around!" Chell looks at me strange, but she doesn't argue, holding her scalchop in both her paws while doing a full 360. The resulting slice sends the Patrat around her flying back, knocked into the air by her spin. As the group is thrown upwards, I see a chance for Alita to help out. "Alita! Use your Air Cutter when Chell knocks them into the air! Strike them down!" Alita jerks her head towards me, looking doubtful of my decision. She's still hesitating, still not putting much trust in her aiming. However, she has to act if we're going to have any chance at all. "There's no time! Trust my choice, and trust yourself! You can do this, you just have to try!" I yell at her, desperate for any kind of saving grace from her end as I dodge, duck and weave around the Patrat trying to knock me down a peg. "You can do this, Ali!" Chell tells the uncertain Pidove, but some Patrat take this chance to slash and bite at her, knocking her off her guard as she cries out in pain.

My words and the sight of the team getting hurt seems to cut through her uncertainty, as she launches a couple of blades towards the Patrat surrounding Chell and Katrina, some of them finding their tagets as they sink into the hide of a couple Patrat, downing them instantly. At her small victory, I cheer her on to keep her confidence high. "Nice work, Ali! Keep it up, and we can beat 'em!" I call out to her as I divert my attention to the others. "Chell! Keep knocking them up so Alita gets a better angle to attack 'em! Katrina, try and use your tail to send them upwards!" Chell and Katrina look at each other, then back to me, nodding as they get to work. Chell lets the number of Patrat around her grow for a little while, before she sends them into the air with a spin of her scalchop. Katrina slams some of the airborne Patrat into the ground, while at the same time using her dexterous tail to flick some more unfortunate individuals upwards to meet their demise by Alita's storm of blades. Soon enough, the team finishes the Patrat off, leaving only the group that's harassing me and Nesia right now.

The combination works effectively, as Chell only suffers a bit of damage from some lucky Patrat that get a couple more hits in on her. Soon enough, the field is cleared of the pesky rodents, leaving only a pile of unconscious and bleeding bodies and a gaping Watchog, staring at us incredulously. "Nice job, team! We did it." I chuckle, allowing the team to see the result of their teamwork. Around us lie the defeated Patrat, all bruised, cut or sliced one way or another.

"Yippee! We did it!" Chell whoops, savoring the victory. "Of course we are victorious." Katrina smiles confidently as she assumes a sitting position and licks her paw, while Alita returns to her preferred perching spot on my shoulder. "Meh, it wasn't that hard." She smirks, nonchalantly looking away as she says so. The attitude on both of them are a lot similar than I had thought, getting a sigh and a smirk out of me as I watch them celebrate. Taking a quick look at the team, I can see that they're all relatively fine, not having taken too much of a beating. Nesia is more or less fine, if not shaken up a bit by the dodging. She looks a little surprised, though. That's weird. Did I do something wrong? Eh, I'll think about that later. My smile now fully returning, I gaze at the Watchog triumphantly. "So, what was that about us not being able to win?" I ask in a taunting manner, the Watchog's eyes narrowing in rage.

"Enough! I came here to kick your ass, and that's just what I'm gonna do!" The Watchog yells, taking the initiative to charge at us now, intent on taking us down. However, we pretty much saw that one coming, as we all quickly evade the incoming strike with ease. As I move to the right, I turn around and take a look at the rodent now behind us. "Geez, man. There's honestly no need to rush into things, especially not us." I joke, causing Alita to groan in exasperation. "Damn it, Jay!" Chell and Katrina, on the other hand, both have a positive reaction to the poorly concocted joke and Alita's reaction despite the situation. "Good one, Mister Jay!" The Oshawott smiles, giggling in mirth while Katrina smiles. Nesia just looks at me incredulously, her face just screaming 'why the hell did you do that' at me.

"Why not? I only do this because I can, and nobody has any objections, now do they?" I smirk, quickly answering the question that she never asked. This causes the grass snake to shake her head and sigh as her look towards me returns to her more neutral one, her eyelids lowered in annoyance. The joke only serves to further annoy the Watchog, however, as we hear him let out a guttural scream of anger as he looks our way again. Well, this is just great. He isn't deterred by our cooperative ass kicking of his entire squad, still opting to kill us himself. Well, if that's the case…

Before he can rush us again, I make my move. "Hey, buddy! If you want to kill us that bad, then why don't we make a deal. You only have to fight one of us. If you win, you get to kill whoever you want. If we win, you have to get your sorry ass outta here quick, fast and in a hurry. Sound good?" My offer completely catches the Watchog off guard, as well as the team. "What!? You can't do that, Jay! Are you out of your mind or something!?" Alita screams at me, definitely not cool with the proposal I just made. Meanwhile, Chell isn't as direct with her answer, but she still shows no small amount of concern. "But Mister Jay! Wouldn't it be better if we take him on together? We'd win a lot easier that way!" Chell suggests, looking quite concerned and surprised that I'd even suggest such a notion. Apparently, the rest of the team had forgotten the entire reason that we have a certain feline along for the ride. Nesia, on the other hand, seems to know what's about to go down, her face remaining at its usual calm expression.

However, I take one look at Katrina, and I instantly see the look of readiness on her face. She's really determined to fight this fight, and she knows who I'm gonna pick for this one. "Alright, I accept your offer." The Watchog smirks, looking quite confident that he's going to win this one as he stands on his end of the clearing. "Well? Which one of you losers are going to fight me?" He taunts, crossing his arms and making quite the egotistical expression. Smirking, I take my stand on our side of the clearing as I call forth my choice. "Katrina, it's time. You ready?" Katrina gives me a firm nod as she comes forth to fight, her eyes still burning with unrelenting determination. "I am ready." Her answer is quick and firm, her small form crouching low as she prepares for battle. "Hey! Why didn't you pick me, you idiot!? If you had picked me, I could've-" Alita starts to say, but I quickly interrupt her with a stern look her way. "Look. This is what she has to do, and this is why she decided to join us in the first place. She wants revenge, and I'm not one to stop her. Wouldn't you want to take some vengeance on the ones who cut the lives of your family short?" Alita flinches as she hears what I have to say, and quickly realizes the importance of this fight to our feline friend as she backs down.

Meanwhile, Chell is far more understanding than Alita, going so far as to cheer her on as she takes a seat. "Woo! You got this, Kat!" She cheers, causing Katrina to look back to the energetic little Oshawott and smiling in appreciation of the support. This doesn't last long, though, as the Watchog quickly rushes forth and tries to deliver a quick Crunch attack her way, his fangs shimmering a slight blackish tint as he prepares to bite down onto the Purrloin. "Dodge and use your back legs to hit him!" However, a quick pounce to the left renders the Watchog's attack useless as Katrina gracefully avoids the incoming strike with ease. Using her hind legs, she delivers a swift kick to the back of the Watchog, sending him stumbling forward as he tries to regain his balance.

As Katrina lands a few feet away from the Watchog, who's now looking even angrier than when we wiped out his whole group, she quickly manages to turn around with no shortage of speed to once again face her foe. "Follow up with Pursuit!" I quickly tell her as the Watchog stumbles, Katrina taking advantage of the opening to leap up and aim her attack down onto the head of the Watchog, her paw glowing a faint black as she brings it down onto the head of the opposing rodent. "Argh! You damn cat!" The Watchog screams as the paw connects, taking the hit head on. As her paw connects, some of the black aura seems to dissipate into the point of impact, causing the Watchog to clutch his head in pain for a bit. That, once again, leaves him wide open. "Use Scratch on his legs!" As he's distracted by the pain of having his skull bashed in, Katrina quickly claws at both of the Watchog's legs after turning around again, leaving him howling in agony as he now directs his full attention to his hurting legs.

"Oh yeah! You got 'em good, Kat!" Chell cheers, watching Katrina moving around the battlefield like a gust of wind. Katrina quickly whirls around again, her tail standing up straight as she rushes straight at the Watchog again, looking quite confident and sure of herself. That's no doubt due to Chell's comments of encouragement cheering her on. However, she fails to notice the Watchog has already recovered from its pain, and is quite ready to intercept her strike. "Katrina! Wait up, don't do that!" I cry out desperately, trying to warn her of the imminent counter plan that the enemy has prepared. My warning ends up falling on deaf ears, as Katrina realizes a second too late that the Watchog has fully recovered by now, and she yelps as she is quickly picked up by the opposing rodent. It's her tail that's been grabbed, making it that much harder for her to break free from his paws. "Got you now." The Watchog gives an evil grin at the struggling feline in his grasp, Katrina trying desperately to free herself from the grip of the Watchog.

I can only watch in abstract horror as the Watchog violently slams Katrina into the dirt by her tail repeatedly, making a brutal slamming sound of flesh against the hard, unforgiving dirt every time. "NO! Stop it, stop it, stop it! Stop hurting her!" Chell pleads desperately, unable to stand the fact that she's watching Katrina get her ass handed to her. Nesia looks on in equal amounts fear and disgust, as we are all forced to watch our companion get violently slammed into the dirt. Alita, on the other hand, is equally desperate to help her out of the pickle she's in. "Let me at 'em, Jay! I'm helping her out so we can win!" She yells at me, allowing me to see the concern for her friend and the determined look in her eyes as she looks my way.

My shoulders shaking, my heart and breathing heavy, I stop her from flying into battle, my hands quickly seizing her by the wings and holding her to my chest in one quick motion. "Hey! Let go of me, you idiot!" Alita cries, using her beak to poke and nip at my hands as she tries to break free from my death grip and help out Katrina. Katrina's looking much worse for wear than when she was still battle ready a few minutes ago, having been let go of and slammed into a tree upon the Watchog having had his fun. She's already struggling to get up, and her head's bleeding profusely, a thick red line being drawn on the left side of her face and dripping off her chin. From the way she's limping, she seems to have also broken a leg from one of the impacts with the ground.

"She's going to die, damn it! Let me help her!" Alita screams in another attempt to get me to listen to the logical option, but her pleas fall on deaf ears. "But Mister Jay, she's going to die! I don't care what you say, I'm helping!" Chell suddenly speaks up, rushing over with her scalchop at the ready as she prepares to attack the Watchog. However, Nesia quickly stops her in her tracks, using her vines to entangle Chell, stopping her mid-sprint and pulling the now struggling Oshawott back towards the rest of us.

"Don't." Nesia's advice to Chell is quick and to the point, not letting Chell join the fight. "But why? Aren't we supposed to help her?" Chell looks to me now, desperately trying to untangle herself so she can save her friend. "No. This is something that she has to do alone." I start, still not letting Alita join in on the fight. "And besides, take a look at Kat right now." They shoot me confused looks, but still turn to look at Katrina anyway. Despite all her injuries, she's still standing, not willing to give in to the pain as she grits her teeth in anger and determination. Much to the surprise and disbelief of the team and the opposing rodent, she even takes a shaky step towards the Watchog. "Still standing, huh? Take this!" The Watchog growls in annoyance, launching a volley of stars at the weakened Purrloin.

"No! Get out of there, Kat!" Chell pleads desperately, hoping against hope that Katrina can somehow turn this around. Too weak to run away, and too weak to use any attacks, Katrina can only watch as the stars smash into her. The Swift attack makes it's mark as the stars cut and stab into her, sending her sprawling with the resulting explosion that the Swift attack makes. However, Katrina still gets back up again, despite the fresh cuts that have now sprouted across her body. Seeing her get back up again like that, I decide to cheer for her. "That's it, Kat! Don't give up! I haven't given up on you, so you shouldn't give up on yourself!" I shout, the words causing Katrina to look at me in shock as she hears what I have to say. "Don't give in!" Nesia suddenly calls out to Katrina, surprising the rest of us with the unexpected outburst. "If Mister Jay believes in you, then I do too!" Chell cheers, supporting Katrina with all that she can muster. "Yeah, Kat! Kick his ass!" Alita cries, the overwhelming amount of support causing Katrina to look at us in surprise. "See? We all believe in you, so you better not lose!" I smirk, further confirming the team support with a thumbs up.

This causes her surprise to quickly fade, and her shocked expression is replaced with a thankful one. "I won't." I hear the words being spoken, barely a whisper, before her entire form begins to glow a blinding white.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

[Jay]

"What's happening, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, shielding her eyes from the intense brightness. As the harsh glow persists, it forces me to do the same. "I don't know!" I reply, trying to keep my eyes from burning in their sockets due to the light. As the light fades, the first thing I register is a surprised "What!?" from the Watchog, before I can see Katrina again. However, the Pokemon I see is now no longer a small Purrloin, but a fully fledged Liepard, spots across her body and a scythe like tail replacing her old one. Her legs are longer, and her body in general is far more streamlined, undoubtedly built for speed and stealthy strikes from behind. Her muzzle also seems to have extended more since her time as a Purrloin, now with a more prominent snout. Her wounds are fully healed, probably as a result of the sudden evolution. Her facial expression is now reverted to her usual calm smile, directed our way. Yep, she evolved, alright.

"Woah! Is that you, Kat?" Alita is awed by our feline friend's new appearance, taking in the sight of her newly acquired form. This causes Katrina to giggle at her friend's reaction, her smile growing wider as she does so. "Yes, Alita. It is." She replies. "You look so much cooler now!" Chell gushes at the more recent transformation, her eyes brimming with curiosity as she marvels at the new bodily features of Katrina, mainly fixated on her scythe like tail. If I didn't know any better, I would've sworn that Chell's eyes actually lit up for a second there.

"It doesn't matter! You're still not going to beat me, just because you evolved!" The Watchog screams, launching a barrage of stars at the newly evolved Katrina. From the looks of it, he's trying to end this fight as soon as possible. This isn't good. Swift is an attack that almost never misses, so Katrina's gotta block it somehow. The stars spin towards Katrina at a frightening speed, whizzing through the air in search of their target. Before I can tell Katrina what to do, however, she starts to emit a dark energy, faint black and purple wisps surrounding her as she stands her ground. She then proceeds to open her maw, the wisps of energy now condensing and moving along the contours of her body, pooling in her mouth as a small black ball starts to form inside, rapidly growing in size. The charging process of the attack takes less than a few seconds to complete, and Katrina then aims the charged attack straight at the swarm of deadly stars. Immediately after Katrina finds her target, a dark purple beam erupts from her mouth with an incredible velocity, engulfing the Swift attack completely as the beam disintegrates all of the sharp stars in an instant. The attacks cancel each other out, causing the beam of darkness to dissipate soon after.

Holy crap. Not only did she evolve at the perfect time, she also picked up a new move. The move that she learned, which is Dark Pulse, was also the ranged attack option that she needed, something that she was sorely lacking before. The entire team is left speechless after the attack, myself included. The attack had also been used pretty quickly, and had such amazing power behind it as well. The Watchog takes a step back, no doubt intimidated by the new move that had just been shown. However, the uncertainty in the expression of the Watchog quickly fades, replaced with anger again as he takes a step back in the forwards direction.

"Oh yeah? Just because you get rid of a few stars, you think you can beat me!?" He growls in rage, quickly charging towards Katrina as he charges up a Low Kick, his leg glowing a bright white as he closes the gap between himself and her with ease. "I can still attack you up close and personal!" His facial expression becomes triumphant, now sporting a wide grin as he swings his leg towards Katrina's body. This is perfect for us, as he now seems almost scared to use any long range attacking moves. He's forsaken the long range harassment, instead opting to use physical moves as his method of attack. As I grin widely, my eyes immediately locking onto Katrina's tail, then back to the Watchog's leg, I quickly manage to think up of what to do next.

"Hey, Kat! Grab it by the leg and throw it!" I smirk, Katrina following suit in a flash as her tail wraps around the leg of the Watchog in a flash. She then whips the opposing rodent over her head, the Watchog slamming into the ground behind her as he fails to stop the brutal connection of his face with the hard dirt floor. "Yeah! Nice going, Kat!" Chell whoops, jumping for joy at the fact that Katrina was able to turn this around like she did. Katrina smirks as well, no doubt having enjoyed giving the Watchog a taste of its own medicine. Man, that must have hurt real bad.

The Watchog isn't ready to give up just yet, however. Not too long after Katrina sent him smashing face first into the ground, he gets back up again and directs a burning glare at the Liepard that messed him up. "I won't give up!" He yells in rage, aiming a Takedown attack her way this time as he charges towards her with a bright aura of power surrounding his body. He's getting impatient, so he's trying to end this fight quickly. However, he seems to have already forgone the precision in his attacks, instead opting for raw power. In this situation, however, the speedier one of the two will ultimately prevail. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which one of the two is the faster one, either.

"Quick, Kat! Dodge and use Pursuit!" I yell, Katrina quickly following up and using her newly formed legs to sprint away from the charge at breakneck speed, easily getting out of the way of the attempted Takedown and leaving the Watchog to suffer the after effects of the attack. The rodent lets out a pained groan as the recoil hits him, immediately slumping down onto one knee as he tries to recover from the self inflicted damage. Meanwhile, Katrina leaps up into the air to perform a quick follow up attack, her paw shimmering in a dark aura. Recoil from attacks don't do much damage, so the main problem about using attacks like these means some recovery time is a must. However, due to the sudden force of having a paw charged with dark energy slamming into his back, the Watchog doesn't get much time to rest up. The resulting gravity powered impact slams him into the ground again, rendering him unable to get up for the time being.

Meanwhile, Katrina gracefully lands on her feet after the aerial move, Meanwhile, Katrina gracefully lands on her feet after the aerial move, her tail swishing behind her as she assumes the sitting position not far from the downed Watchog. Meanwhile, the Watchog barely moves, groaning in pain as he tries to get up, but fails to do so as his arms lose the remainder of their strength. Katrina doesn't let up after her initial assault, though, mercilessly peppering the opposing rodent with her Pursuit and Scratch combo. As he slumps back down into the dirt, Katrina charges up a final Dark Pulse attack aimed right for his head to end his life, but she's quickly stopped by a hand from me. "Don't, Kat. He isn't worth the energy, so let's not do that." She growls at me, clearly wanting me to get out of her way and finish this herself. "He murdered my family, so I will have my revenge on this monster. Stand aside, Jay." She speaks as I see small traces of tears build in her eyes, threatening to boil over. However, my stance remains firm, not letting Katrina do what she wants. "He killed your parents, right? So, if you kill him, wouldn't that make you a monster, too?" She stops upon hearing what I have to say, letting her attack dissipate as she finally lets up on her assault. I walk on over to Katrina and sit down next to her, addressing the Watchog first as he looks my way with intense hate and malice. Ignoring the venomous glare he's sending my way, I look right back at him as I speak, my tone neutral.

"Well, we managed to beat you, so you should uphold your end of the bargain. I better not see you again, or you'll be sorry." I tell him, my voice more than enough proof that I'm dead serious about this. The Watchog doesn't really seem to register my warning, just fainting on the spot soon after. Huh. It seems like the attacks were just too much for him to handle. With that out of the way, I get up and turn around to address the Purrloin turned Liepard. "Nice job, Kat." I smile, petting her on the head as she purrs in satisfaction. "Of course. I did tell you that I would not lose, did I not?" She smiles back confidently, savoring the victory that she managed to attain. "That you did." I chuckle, grunting as I stand up again, addressing the entire team. "However, this is where we now have to part ways."I start, the Liepard stopping and turning around to face me once she hears those words. The team members around me also seem to know what I'm about to say as I take out a Pokeball from my bag and show it to her, the red and white capsule glinting slightly due to the sun overhead. Katrina quickly makes her way over to me and sits down, eyes locked on the Pokeball as she quickly realizes what this is, her gaze remaining neutral as her eyes look to me this time, her smile fading away.

"Yep. If ya haven't figured it out already, this is your Pokeball. Now that I've helped you out with getting your revenge, I think it's time that I let you go on your way." Katrina only looks at me in response, her facial expression growing confused. "Yeah. You got what you wanted, right? So, now the only part of the deal that I haven't fulfilled is the part where I let you go." I tell her, tightening my grip on the small, yet fragile capture device. "The second you say so, I'll break this ball, and you're free to go. Sound good?" I ask her, preparing for the slightly sad moment of saying goodbye to a friend. Sure, we may have known each other for only a couple of days, but I still find this quite hard to do, to be honest. Chell looks sad as well, staring at Katrina with a look of longing. Alita looks a little bummed herself, while Nesia's expression remains neutral. Katrina doesn't give me an answer straight away, looking away from me and staring at the Pokeball, mulling it over.

However, the answer that I get isn't what I was expecting. "No." She simply says, her answer straight to the point. My brain doesn't register the answer that she gave me at first, though. "Yeah, I was kinda expecting that you'd choose to leave-wait, what?" I stop halfway through my sentence, inwardly doubting my own hearing for a second when her answer fully hits me. This causes her to giggle at my reaction, as she speaks her mind a second time. "No. I do not wish to leave." She speaks again, pushing the Pokeball back into my hand with her tail. "Yay! Kat's staying, Kat's staying!" Chell whoops joyfully, jumping up into the air in her celebration. Alita starts smirking a bit herself, also looking quite happy about the choice. Katrina smiles at the celebratory scene that Chell's making, as I do the same, my smile growing a little wider in happiness at her choice and the hyperactive little Oshawott. Looks like our team just got bigger, which is always a good thing. Looking over, I can't help but notice that Nesia looks surprised to see that Katrina decided to stay behind.

As soon as that happens, Katrina suddenly slumps onto the ground, breathing pretty heavily. I quickly rush to her side, checking to see if she's hurt in any way. "I am fine. I am simply tired, Jay." She breathes, looking quite tired. Looks like the strain of having to fight right after evolving and learning a new move was a little too much for her to handle. I respond by sliding my arms underneath her frame, lifting her up and placing her over my shoulders so that her body is supported by my neck and shoulders. Katrina initially looks surprised, as she probably wasn't expecting me to hoist her up onto my shoulders. "Come on then, team. Let's get outta here, and go grab some lunch. I don't know about you girls, but I'm starving." I grin, holding Katrina by her legs to ensure that she doesn't fall off my shoulders. "Yay! Let's go get lunch, Mister Jay!" Chell whoops, her gluttony ever so apparent to see as I chuckle at her cute antics. "You girls gonna walk on your own, or do you need a lift?" I ask them, as they all seem to be rather tired from the recent group fight a moment ago. Well, everyone save for Nesia that is.

Chell and Alita both look at me, then to the Liepard enjoying her free ride back to town, and then back to me. "Do you even have to ask?" Alita smirks and asks sarcastically, soon after she shares a nod of mutual agreement with Chell. Nesia seems to not have any objections to the idea either, as she doesn't voice any disagreement. Sighing, I crouch down low to the ground, so that the two of them can get onto my shoulders. "Alright, you guys. Get on so we can-" I'm rudely interrupted by a sudden utterance of a war cry, as I look to the left to see the Watchog that was just downed a moment ago charging straight at me and Katrina, intent on trying to beat the crap out of us in our weakened state. Shit, he's far too close now for me to get up and move out of the way! I can't really do anything with Katrina slung over my shoulders like this and weighing me down, either. The only thing I can do is widen my eyes helplessly as the Watchog charges forth, preparing a Low Kick to strike at us.

However, I don't really have to do much, as I see two long and green appendages quickly lash out form my right side and strike the Watchog in the face, the resulting blow knocking him down for a final time. After confirming that the rodent really has fainted this time, I look back towards my one and only savior to utter my thanks. "Whew, that was close. Thanks for the save, Ness." I thank the small grass snake, the Snivy nodding her acknowledgement of my gratitude as the rest of the team breathe a sigh of relief at the rather close shave just now. "Thanks, Ness! You really saved us back there!" Chell also pitches in, thanking her in full as she pats the Snivy on the side with her paw. "I appreciate the assistance, Nesia. Thank you." Katrina nods in thanks, as Chell and Alita get onto my shoulders, standing on Katrina as their source of leverage. "Alley up!" I grunt, hoisting the lot of them up as I stand from my crouching position. Since the three of them aren't that heavy, Katrina isn't feeling much pressure on her body. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for me as we leave the area behind, the entire team weighing on my shoulders.

"Geez, you girls are heavy..." I grunt, their combined weight really putting some strain on my back to keep us upright. "Jay, you should realize that calling a girl heavy isn't something that you should do." Katrina teases, sticking out her tongue as she enjoys the ride. "Well, it's not like you girls were purr-fectly light to begin with now, huh?" I joke, causing Nesia to give me her annoyed look, while Alita groans audibly. "Ugh, come on you idiot! Now isn't the time for your stupid jokes!" She huffs, despite her small smile telling me that my joke is far from unwanted in her life.

."So, what made you change your mind about coming with us, Kat?" I ask, raising an eyebrow in genuine curiosity. "It wasn't like I had much to look forward to after getting my revenge on that rodent, so I would much rather aid you in achieving your goals than wander aimlessly." She replies, to which I give a nod in reply. "Thanks for helping, Kat." I tell her, before I notice something that I should have noticed a while back. Katrina's fur is pretty soaked in sweat right now, here form shimmering due to the moisture on her. That fight really got the girls to work up a sweat, so maybe I should get them a little something to freshen them up a little. "Alright, we'll get lunch, but first I want to get something from the convenience store." I tell them, causing the rest of the group to look at me with a face of confusion.

"Get what, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, her little beady eyes shimmering with curiosity as she directs her gaze my way. "To get you girls some stuff. Some grooming equipment, some fur conditioner for you and Kat, and some scale soap for Nesia. After all, you really worked up a sweat this time, kiddo. Gotta get you cleaned up somehow, right?" I explain as we make our way down the dirt path, quickly reaching the safer confines of Striaton City. To my surprise, we were actually a lot closer to the actual city itself than we thought. Walking in, I once again treat myself to the usual combination of staring and whispering all around our little group as the city folk set their criticizing sights on me. I don't really take the time to take a look at Alita after the joke, but it seems that she's looking down about something again. Geez, lots of things really cross her mind in a bad way, eh? I'll have to ask her about that later, but we should get to the store for now.

"I don't like the way they're staring at us." Nesia remarks, causing me to sigh in response to her comment. "Well, people aren't exactly too fond with what they don't understand. We humans usually keep Pokemon in their Pokeballs, so seeing Pokemon out and around in town like this isn't something you see every day." I explain to her, ignoring the weird looks and whispering comments sent our way. "You can't really change some parts of how we are, so I find it best to simply ignore them." Nesia seems to be content with my answer, her curiosity sated for now. We eventually make our way to the Pokemart, stepping in quickly as to avoid the multitude of staring that the people are sending our way. "Can you walk now, Kat?" I ask the Liepard, who gives a nod in reply. "Yes, I can." She thankfully says, letting me crouch down low and finally set her, along with the three smaller team members onto the ground and relax my shoulders. "Whew!" I sigh, finally allowed some reprieve from carrying them everywhere. They may be light when carried individually, but they are freaking heavy when carried together… "Now that we're here, we can take a look around to find the cleaning products. Follow me, team." I beckon them with a wave of my hand, making my way over to the soap section, the team following closely as I check out the stuff lining the shelves of the Mart.

However, the people inside the store just take over where the people outside left off, with judging stares directed our way. Deciding to ignore the lot of them, I just keep looking at the selection of soaps, wondering which I should buy for the team. As I pinch my chin in thought, however, Chell once again grabs my attention by tugging on my pant leg. "Hmm? What do ya need, kiddo?" I ask her, Chell responding by pointing to the soap up on the higher shelves, which just so conveniently happens to be where the fur conditioner is, among other things. "I wanna see too, Mister Jay!" Chell whines, causing me to mentally face palm due to my own stupidity. How the hell would they decide what they wanna smell like after a bath, if they can't even figure out what they even want? "Alright then, kiddo. Up ya go!" I chuckle, hoisting her up onto my shoulder to give her a better angle to see the choices she can pick.

"Um, Mister Jay? I don't know what that says…" Chell sheepishly grins while scratching the back of her head, causing me to take one bottle off the shelf and hold it up to her. "See this, kid? This reads 'Lemon Scented Fur Conditioner'." I tell her, tracing my finger underneath the words as I read them out loud, so she can understand what they mean. "You can also take a sniff of the stuff inside, 'cause there's a hole on the top here for you to do that. What you smell in there is what you're gonna smell like when you wash yourself with it." I explain getting a nod from her as I take the bottle off the shelf one by one, letting Katrina and Chell take a whiff at each scent of soap. "This smells good, Mister Jay! I want this!" Chell declares, holding up a bottle of lemon scented conditioner. "And I wish to have this." Katrina replies, a bottle of rose scented conditioner held by her tail. "Nice choices, you two." I comment, taking the bottles of conditioner from them and holding on to them for now. One feather grooming kit and a bottle of mint scented scale soap later, we were on our way to pay for our stuff at the counter. However, there was one little problem. "Kat, why do I see another bottle of conditioner in your tail?" I question the Liepard, said feline freezing once she realizes she's been caught red handed. "You aren't much fun, Jay." She pouts, while I can't help but find her expression cute. "Kat, no means no." I sternly but gently tell her off, getting her to put back the bottle. "You're far off from being the purr-fect thief paw-sible, Kat." I joke, causing Chell to giggle while Alita groans. "Damn it Jay!" She sighs, while I chuckle.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

[Jay]

"Come on, Kat. Give it back." I sigh, reaching out for my wallet with the keycard to the rented room within, but a quick swish of Katrina's dexterous tail sends my leather money holder further from my grasp and further to the right of me as she teases me with the item she so cleverly snuck out from under my nose. "No can do, Jay. You understand the rules of our little game." Katrina taunts, her tail dangling my wallet by its scythe as she smiles playfully, much to my chagrin. Alita's looking like she's enjoying watching me suffer as well, evidenced by her smile.

However, a quick extension of vines from Nesia later, and the wallet is swiped from the thieving cat and placed into my hand. "Thanks, Neisa." I smile at the little grass snake, who nods curtly in reply to my gratitude. However, she's starting to smile in response to my thanks now, albeit the smile being rather small. "Aw, poo. That was quite unnecessary, Nesia." Katrina pouts, while I chuckle in response to her reaction to having had her role reversed, becoming the victim instead of the thief. I hadn't really noticed her in that way before, but I can't help but find her reactions to being thwarted rather cute.

"I still can't believe those bottles of conditioner sold for so little, though. That was such a steal!" I joke, causing Nesia to immediately lose her smile, replaced with her annoyed look and an eye roll, her eyelids lower than usual to accentuate her point. "Good one, Mister Jay!" Chell giggles, causing Katrina to smile a little wider as Alita groans in annoyance. "I swear to God, Jay! Stop it with the jokes!" She slaps me over the head with her wing, although her smile never leaves her face. Swiping the keycard over the sensor that keeps the door locked, the door unlocks with a satisfying click. As I push it open, the rest of the team quickly rushes into the room while I place the keycard into the power slot near the door. Chell quickly rushes over to the bed, bouncing on the soft mattress of the sleeping surface once again. "Whee! Whee! This is so much fun!" She giggles, immediately dissuading Alita from resting her small form on the bed due to the rather violent vibrations as she flies off to roost on the couch. Katrina joins the hyperactive little ball of energy on the bed, taking a nice resting spot on one of the sides of the bed and curling up into a ball. Nesia decides to take a spot on the bed with the two other team members, emotionlessly watching Chell bounce around with all the energy of a Bunnelby on caffeine. Meanwhile, I decide it best for me to sit back on the couch next to Alita and relax for a little while, as to loosen up a bit.

However, one sideways glance at the team of Pokemon on the bed quickly reminds me of two things. The first being that they haven't even had a cleanup after that fight yet, and the second being that we haven't even tried to tackle the first Gym around here. Getting up with an inward sigh, I walk on over to the bed as I accept that fact that a Trainer's work is never done. "Come on, girls. You're all pretty dirty from that fight just now, and I don't need you messing up the stuff in here with grit. I'm cleaning you up, now." I tell them, plucking Chell out of midair with a skilled yet gentle swipe, and picking Katrina up and off the bed. I also swipe Nesia off the couch as well, not letting her dirty the furniture too much. "But I was having fun!" Chell whines, slapping my arm with her paws as I cradle her and hold up Katrina into the bathroom. Katrina lets out a surprised yelp, obviously not expecting me to have done something so sudden. Nesia looks surprised, but her emotion vanishes a moment later, her blank expression resurfacing.

As I close the bathroom door behind me and turn on the tap water to get the tub filled halfway, I can immediately see the Liepard tensing up at the sight of the water, her stance rigid as she stares closely at the liquid pouring from the metallic tap head. Ignoring her negative reaction to the water for now, I gently twist and tweak the knobs, so that the clear liquid reaches a lukewarm temperature as felt between my fingertips. When the tub reaches the halfway full mark, I cut off the tap and grab my cute, quirky little Oshawott with both hands, lowering her into the tub with a small splash. Chell surfaces soon after being submerged, spitting out some water before swimming around in the stuff like a natural. Welp, she is a Water Type, after all. Katrina, however, is rather reluctant to enter the bathtub, as shown by her rather noticeable resistance when I pick her up. "What's the matter, Kat?" I ask her, gently lowering her squirming form onto the tiled floor without too many problems. "I…am rather afraid of getting wet, Jay." She mumbles, her voice audible, but not as loud as it usually is when she talks. From what I can hear, it's got quite the nervous edge to it. She's shaking like a leaf, not willing to test the waters.

"So that's what it is, hmm?" I reply, causing Chell to burst up out of the water when Katrina speaks her mind. "What!? How could you not like water, Kat!?" Chell gasps, clearly not quite understanding of the mental habits of catlike Pokemon yet. "It's because cats don't really know how to swim, kiddo. It's kinda like why you hate high heat, 'cause it dries out the oils in your fur rather quickly as well. It's instinct related, so she can't really help it. It's in her nature." I explain, causing Chell to immediately look guilty for teasing her friend about her natural fear. "I'm sorry, Kat. I didn't know…" She trails off, looking quite upset that she upset someone. "It is quite alright, Chell. There is no need to apologize, for you simply did not know." Katrina comforts Chell, causing her to perk up again as she smiles back at the much larger feline happily. "Alright. Now that that's settled, let's try and break that fear of yours, eh?" I smile, gently wrapping both my hands gently around her barrel. "What are you doing?" Katrina gasps, not used to my grasping being so gentle and sudden. "Kat, I'm going to have to ask you to trust me on this one. Trust me, like you did when you fought that Stoutland. Can you do that?" I ask, Katrina giving me an affirmative nod in response.

"Good. Now, what I'm going to do is lower you into the tub enough so that your paws can touch the water. The idea may scare you, but I want you to be brave for me." When I tell her what I'm about to do, she tenses up again, shaking a little in fear. "Shh, it's alright, Kat. Be brave, and you'll do fine." I coax her, allowing her form to slowly relax in my hands before I lower her into the tub, letting her paws touch the water. Breathing more slowly now, she uses her paws to gently swish at the water. "You can do this, Kat!" Chell cheers gently, as not to startle her during the action. She's really hesitant to try the water at first, but she eventually gets used to having her paws wet, sinking them into the water without much of a problem. "Is it okay, if I lower you in a little more now?" I ask her, Katrina nodding firmly in reply. "Tell me when you want me to stop, okay?" I tell her, lowering her into the water even further. Her legs go in without a hitch, sinking into the water slowly. When her barrel reaches the water's surface though, she immediately panics, her heart rate and breathing increasing rapidly, both felt by my hands. "Pull me out! Pull me out!" Katrina cries in fear, resulting in me quickly yanking her out of the tub and setting her onto the tiled floor.

Still seeing her in a state of alarm, I quickly pet her on the back, running my hand down her spine and her neck. The petting immediately takes effect, allowing her to return from panicky to a calmer state of composure. Liepard and Purrloin are usually the calm type, so for something to alarm one so easily must be quite the evolutionary hard wiring. When Katrina recovers, however, she looks down to the ground, unwilling to look at me. "Hey Kat, you okay?" I ask, my concerned question causing her to chuckle dryly in reply. "It is pathetic, is it not? I cannot use water to clean myself, even though I am the only Pokemon here as of yet to evolve." She sighs, her ears drooping low as her voice cracks. "You must be disappointed in me, to be scared so easily by something as harmless as water…" She's pretty much beating herself up over something that can't be helped, which really saddens me. Therefore, I crouch down to her level, using my hand to gently lift her head up, letting her eyes come to level with mine as I speak. "Hey now, Kat. Water-ver do you mean by that? I'm not disappointed in you." I ask her, causing her eyes to widen in surprise as she takes in what I had just said. "You aren't? But isn't it shameful to have a Pokemon that is scared off by something so harmless?" She protests, her eyes darting away from mine as we break eye contact.

"No, it isn't. In fact, I'm proud of you Kat." I reassure her, causing her to slowly but surely look back my way. "I don't know another Liepard who would be as brave as you, to try and fight their instincts." I tell her, Katrina's uncertainty slowly but surely melting away as I explain to her my reasoning. "It doesn't matter if you're scared of water. We all have something we're scared of, and it's okay. That's why we're here, to help you overcome what you fear." "Yeah! That's right, Kat! We'll be with you all the way!" Chell further agrees with my statement, giving Katrina more encouragement to work with. The Liepard is now fully focused on my words, her eyes still showing some level of uncertainty. "Besides, no matter what you're scared of, you're still that brave and determined Purrloin in my eyes." As I finish what I wanted to tell her, I see her face turn a slight red, contrasting slightly against the purple and yellow fur of her muzzle. If one didn't look closely enough, the red tint would most likely remain unseen. "Thank you." She replies, looking away from me in an attempt to hide her blush.

Seeing her get all hot and bothered like this, I can't help but chuckle as I comfortingly pet her on the head. "It's no problem, Kat. So, wanna give the water another shot?" I ask, getting a firm nod from the Liepard in response. "I am ready." She steels herself, taking a few seconds to ready herself before she lets me grab her by the barrel and lower her into the tub again. This time around, she's still starting to get fidgety when her barrel begins to make contact with the water, but she doesn't panic. Instead, she takes a few deep breaths and shuts her eyes tight as I lower the rest of her into the tub, so that the water is covering all but her neck and head. Smiling at our feline friend, Chell immediately congratulates Katrina on her victory against her fear of water. "You did it, Kat! You did it!" She cheers, allowing Katrina to finally open her eyes and see the result of her determination.

"Well done, Kat. Now, let me just place Ness here into the…" I turn around to try and spot the Snivy, but she had already been one step ahead of me, getting herself into the tub during my pep talk with Katrina. She's already looking more relaxed, a smile stretched out across her face as the water starts to bring her body temperature up to a more comfortable level. "Whoops, sorry about not placing you in there sooner, Ness." I apologize to her, causing her to shake her head in reply. "It's fine."

Hearing the short answer from the grass snake, I sigh as I pull out their respective bottles of conditioner that they picked for themselves. "Next time 'round, at least tell me if you're getting too cold, okay?" Nesia gives a nod, implying that she got the message loud and clear. I first take Katrina out of the tub, seeing as she's already wet enough for the conditioner to lather up in her fur. Popping off the cap with my hands, I quickly squeeze a sizeable dollop of the rose scented fur conditioner onto my hands, applying the slippery substance to Katrina's sleek frame as I rub the soap into her coat, making sure to get some of it into her paws and behind her ears as well, among other places. Katrina sighs happily as I massage the soap into her fur, purring in delight as she receives my treatment. The fur conditioner foams up quickly, turning Katrina's coat from a mix of purple and yellow to a pure, snowy white. When I decide that I've rubbed her enough for the conditioner to take effect, I place her back into the tub, washing the soap off of her with my hands as they gently splash water onto her coat, ridding it of all soap. I them take her out of the tub, using a towel to quickly dry her up by rubbing her a little rougher than when I had applied the soap to her.

Now having finished with one of the girls, I quickly reach out a hand to grab the little Oshawott, messing around in the soapy water by flinging clumps of bubbles around. "Come on, Mister Jay! Let me play with the bubbles!' Chell whines, while I chuckle in response to her adorable hyperactivity. "Hate to burst your bubble, kiddo, but I need to clean you, not let you mess with the bubbles." I reply, lifting her out of the tub to apply some of the lemon scented soap to her fur. She giggles uncontrollably when I apply the soap, most likely due to her lack of experience with soap and where my hands would occasionally touch. "Stop it! That tickles, Mister Jay!" She squeals in laughter as I brush my slippery hands along the underside of her armpits. "Geez, kiddo. The more you move around while I'm doing this, the longer it'll take for me to get that place cleaned. So could ya please quit moving for a minute?" I chuckle, amused myself at this little turn of events. Eventually, though, I manage to get some soap under her pits, and I quickly wash all the soap out of her coat with water. The result: one nice and squeaky clean Oshawott, ready for the towel drying process. She didn't wriggle around in my grasp that much this time around, probably due to the rough texture of the cloth not really making it good tickling material.

That's two done and dried, and one more to go. Picking Nesia up and out of the water, I'm about to apply the soap to her when she swipes the bottle of scale soap from my grasp, squirting a dollop of the stuff onto herself with her vines squeezing around the bottle. Taking this as I sign that she wishes to do the process herself, I lead the rest of the team out the door as she lathers the soap on herself by rubbing her vines around herself. "Come out here when you're done, alright Ness?" I tell her, receiving one of her curt nods in response. In the meantime, I get to work on Alita, using the grooming kit I bought to get to work on her feathers. "What's that for?" She asks, seeing the grooming kit in my hands as I open it and pull out the brush. "It's to help you get clean, Ali. Now hold still while I get the dirt out from between your feathers." I coax her, gently sliding the brush along her small form. She tenses up in the beginning of the treatment, but slowly gets used to it as I brush at her wings and legs, removing any dust from the contours of her feathers. The brush from the kit comes in handy, making sure that no dust particles remain stuck in her feathers. She lets out happy cooing noises while I brush her, allowing her to relax in my grip as I cleanse her of the grit in her feathers.

Before long, I'm done cleaning her feathers, and let her preen herself as I address the team, Nesia having already stepped out of the tub. "We should rest up for a bit, 'cause I've decided that I wanna challenge the Gym here." I tell them, causing Alita to tilt her head in confusion. "What's a Gym?" She asks, not really used to hearing the term. Katrina looks confused as well, but Chell and Nesia both seem perfectly understanding as I tell them what I want to do next. "A Gym's a place where Trainers go to, to challenge people known as Gym Leaders. When you beat a Gym Leader, you get something called a Gym Badge. You need eight Badges to enter the Pokemon League Championship, which starts about a year from today." I explain to them, the two seeming to also understand how the League system works now.

"That's nice and all, but why do you people even do all this?" Alita asks, causing the entire team to look my way. "The reason for doing this isn't the same for everyone. Some do this to be famous and popular, others do this for the money. But I do this because I want to experience new things along the way, and make new friends." I tell them, as I get up from my crouching position and grab my things. "Let's go, team."

Chell looks confused as to where we're going, and rushes over to me. "Aren't we going to relax for a bit?" She asks, her confusion showing as I slip on my hoodie. "Yeah! You told us to relax just now, so where are we going?" Alita asks, causing me to raise an eyebrow and look at them in confusion this time. "To get lunch. Aren't you girls hungry?" I ask, to which a group of stomachs grumble to answer my question. "I'll take that as a yes." I chuckle, opening the door as we leave the room, in search of lunch in Striaton City.

"There's a bunch of foods we can get, like spaghetti and pizza. What do you girls wanna eat?" I ask them, right after we leave the PokeCenter and start walking. "I want spaghetti!" Chell immediately speaks up, tugging on my pant leg to further my focus of attention on her. "As long as there is an option for fish, I do not mind." Katrina replies. "I just want some berries, but I guess fish is okay." Alita answers, Nesia agreeing with a nod. "Okay, then. Let's go over there and take a seat, alright?" I point to the restaurant now in view, taking a look inside. There are already people inside, dining away. I put a hand on the restaurant to enter, but the waiter outside stops me as soon as I do so. "I'm terribly sorry sir, but you're going to have to return your Pokemon to their Pokeballs if you wish to dine inside. If not, you shall have to remain outside." Sighing, I comply as I tell the team to move over to occupy a table outside the restaurant. As we sit down and order our food, Alita voices her complaints. "What!? Why can't we go inside?" She growls, looking quite pissed as the waiter leaves with our order. "Well, it's because people don't really like Pokemon, even though the League is a thing. It's just due to some people hating on Pokemon, just because they're Pokemon."

"That's not fair! We can't help it if we're Pokemon!" Chell protests, not too happy with the arrangements either. "I know, but there's not much I can do about that, either. Either we sit out here to eat, or we eat somewhere else. I've been around here, and I don't know a place that lets Pokemon inside." I tell her, causing her and Alita to reluctantly calm down as our food arrives. "Here you are, sir." The waiter from before informs us of the arrival of our food: Berries, a large plate of spaghetti and some fish fillets. "I apologize for the arrangements, but my superior doesn't take too kindly to Pokemon in his establishment." The waiter says, to which I shake my head. "It's okay. Orders are orders, right?" I smile at him, which causes him to smile back. "Enjoy your food, sir." He bows, and takes his leave. Looking back at the team, I take a bite out of the spaghetti plate. "See? Not all people hate Pokemon, it's just that our rules force us to sometimes." Alita scoffs at that, pecking at her food. "Your rules are stupid." I sigh at her as she says so. "Yup, I hate 'em too Ali."

After some rest and relaxation within the confines of the hotel room, we enter the insides of the Striaton City Gym. The insides are rather spacious, with a main battling arena to fight in, and a few rows of seats lining the sides of the arena to allow for spectators to watch. The arena is one of rocky terrain, with rocks along the otherwise flat dirt surface. "Hello, and welcome to the Striaton City Gym." The receptionist in the front bids us welcome as we enter, gesturing to three differently colored tiles. "Please step on the tile representing the element of your starter Pokemon." I step on the blue tile, my team following suit as the tile glows a light blue, pulling back the curtains in front of us to reveal the Gym Leader that will face us.

"Greetings, challenger! I am Cilan, one of the three Gym Leaders of the Striaton City Gym. I shall be your opponent today." He's dressed in a white suit and black tie, with a head of green hair. As we make our way over to our respective sides of the field, Cilan releases his first Pokemon. "Go, Lilipup!" The capsule Cilan throws into the air splits open, releasing the small dog Pokemon in a burst of light. "Alright, Chell. You ready for this?" I ask her, to which she nods in reply. "I'm ready, Mister Jay!" She declares, running onto the field to face the opposing Pokemon. The judge, standing on the side, sets the battle into motion. "Let the battle between the challenger Jay and the Gym Leader Cilan begin!"


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

[Jay]

"Chell, use Razor Shell!" I blurt out, Chell quickly whipping out her blade and running at the opposing puppy, about to take a slash at the Lilipup. However, Cilan quickly shows me that a Gym Leader isn't just an empty title. "Dodge, and use Work Up!" Cilan commands, as the puppy moves quickly out of the way of the attack, and glows a faint white as it charges up its energy to buff its attack and special attack. Not only is it fast, it also knows Work Up, which quickly racks up the damage of attacks. The problem here is that the puppy is fast, and its Work Up charges rather quickly. This means that Cilan isn't letting me take advantage of any openings in the charging process, allowing the Lilipup to charge up freely as it bounds around effortlessly on the field, dodging Chell's swipes from her scalchop as she tries and fails to hit it a second time and the puppy charges another Work Up to further boost its stats. It's honestly really frustrating, this strategy of his.

While Chell grits her teeth in frustration, Cilan decides to try and wear down my own patience. "Your Pokemon fights with power, but your strategy is simple. Your fighting style is explosive, but is still quite bland." He taunts, trying to make me divert my focus on him instead of the fight. However, I'm still trying to figure out how to get rid of that pesky Lilipup. The fight has slowed down considerably now, with the Lilipup and Chell both staring each other down, neither side not really giving in to the other. The puppy moves fast, but not too fast. Its dodging pattern is also rather inconsistent, meaning that I can't really tell Chell to aim at a specific point. Since Cilan already had his Lilipup activate Work Up twice, the most logical thing to do now is for him to…

"Lilipup, use Bite!" Cilan commands. The little dog Pokemon using the rocks as leverage to jump and bound over to Chell's position quickly and opening it's jaws, ready to take a painful chomp out of Chell. "Quick! Use your sword to block!" With little to no time to react to the threat of being bitten, Chell lifts her scalchop to intercept the attack, causing the Lilipup to bite down on the blade of the weapon. However, the speed it had built up when rushing towards Chell causes her to be pushed back by the resulting force of impact, slamming her back into the rock directly behind her and causing her to let out a pained cry. Chell manages to hold her stance, stopping the blade from slamming into her face as the puppy growls at her, biting down hard on the blade and trying to wrench it out of her paws by shaking its head left to right. With the way it's sharp teeth are holding onto the blade like that, Chell's not going to be able to hold on to her weapon much longer.

However, the excellent grip ability of the Lilipup does work in our favor as well. Chell is larger than the Lilipup, and she might be able to use her own strength to toss it around. "Chell! Use the rock behind you! Smash the Lilipup into it!" I tell her, hoping that she actually does have the necessary power to move that little fur ball around. Luckily she does, and swings her scalchop directly at the rock, taking one unfortunate little puppy with it. However, Cilan isn't about to let his Pokemon bite the dust that easily. "Let go, Lilipup!" With that quick command, the Lilipup releases its vice like grip on the blade, sending it flying towards another rock, this one further away than the one I tried to get Chell to smash it into. Using its feet to absorb the shock of impacting with the hard surface, the puppy recuperates from the throw pretty quickly. "Use Bite again!" The Lilipup is quick to fulfill the order, charging right at Chell and taking a running leap before plummeting down for another Bite attack. "Block it!" Chell blocks the attack again, getting pushed back by the sheer force behind the attack itself. As she struggles with the puppy, I struggle with my thoughts, trying to decide on what to do.

There isn't much time. Since Chell's scalchop is basically useless in this contest of power, I need another option. I need to use an attack, with a range to it… Wait. Chell knows Water Gun, for fuck's sake. As the realization of my idiocy hits me in full, I face palm hard enough for Cilan to visibly wince at the sound of the slap. "Ugh, it hurts to realize how much of an absolute idiot I am." I sigh to myself. "Chell! Water Gun!" Chell quickly blasts a jet of water into the face of the Lilipup, making it let go of the blade and stunning it as well. "Razor Shell!" Chell lifts up her blade and swings repeatedly at the puppy, resulting in multiple cuts and gashes across its body. With the recent shot to the face and the now bleeding cuts on its body wearing it down, the Lilipup stumbles backwards, struggling just to stay standing. I'm not about to let it come back from this, though. "Chell! Finish it with Tackle!" Chell takes a running charge, bashing her body into the side of the puppy, knocking it into one of the rocks around the arena and ending the fight.

"Lilipup is unable to continue! The first round goes to the challenger!" The referee announces, seeing the swirls in the eyes of the Lilipup as it lies there. "Nice work, kid." I call out to Chell, who runs back over to me. "We won, Mister Jay! We won!" She smiles wide, looking really proud of herself. "I'm real proud of ya, kiddo. Why don't you take a break, yeah? I'm pretty sure Ali can take it from here, so you can rest up for a minute." I tell her, ruffling up her head as she bats my hand away in mock annoyance. "Cut that out!" She giggles, as I retract my hand. "No can do, kiddo. Your fur is way too nice to the touch, so my hand's gonna be here for a long time." I grin, reaching down to mess with her head again. She doesn't resist this time, closing her eyes and smiling happily as I lightly scratch behind her ears.

As Cilan recalls his fainted Lilipup, he congratulates me on beating him the first time around. "Nice work, Jay. I question your methods, but you managed to knock my first Pokemon out." I shrug in reply to his question, not really sure what to tell him. "I guess I'm just inexperienced, is all. I'm still kinda new to this whole Pokemon Trainer thing." Cilan gives a smile upon hearing my answer. "Then you're quite the powerful beginner! Few Trainers that challenge this Gym as their first one manage to get past Lilipup, as they believe that the first Gym is quite easy to beat." Gym Leaders have to ask how many Gym Badges you obtain, before choosing which set of Pokemon to fight you with. This is one of the many regulations set by the League to provide potential Championship participants with a learning curve, to strengthen them and provide challenges of escalating difficulty.

Cilan's smile quickly turns into a smirk, as he readies his second and last Pokemon. "But we shall see if your victory was skill, or simply beginner's luck. Go, Pansage!" Cilan throws out another Pokeball, releasing the small, Grass Type monkey from its capsule. The monkey seems harmless enough, actually smiling when it enters the fight. "Ali, wanna take this guy on?" I ask her, seeing the Pidove more than itching for a fight. "Hell yeah! It's about time I got to kick some ass!" She smirks, quickly taking off from her perch on the bench to hover in midair above the field, ready and eager to start the fight. Upon seeing Alita take to the field, the monkey immediately takes up a battle stance, curling it's hands into fists and gritting it's teeth into a scowl as it stares the bird down.

The referee sees that both Trainers are raring to go, and starts off the match. "Begin!" Cilan is quick to start off the fight this time, opting to go for the offensive himself. "Pansage, use Vine Whip!" The monkey rushes forth, lashing out its vines in an attempt to ensnare the Pidove. Immediately trying to rid me of the aerial advantage, eh? Nice strategy, but I'm afraid that there are a few flaws to it. Such as the fact that Alita can literally dodge the incoming vines with the utmost of ease, since the first team that the Gym leader uses to fight isn't exactly full of highly trained Pokemon with high speed attacks. "Alita, fly upwards and use Agility!" At my command, Alita quickly gains the altitude required to shake off the vines that try to ground her, surrounding herself with a windy aura once the vines are out of reach. As the aura dissipates, I know that the Agility is starting to take effect.

Not one to waste time, I quickly try and capitalize on the newly gained speed boost as well as the current height of the Pidove. "Use Peck!" Alita quickly flies downwards, going in for a dive bomb on the vulnerable Pansage. When your opponent has the aerial advantage, there isn't exactly a good place to avoid the strikes that they send your way, as the height difference provides quite the bird's eye view of the opponent. Also, the pun was completely intended. As Alita dives towards the Pansage, I think this match to be over as well, as the monkey is clearly at the typing disadvantage and has nowhere to run from the attack. However, the one thing I noticed a second too late was that Cilan was perfectly calm and smiling.

My confusion on the matter is quickly demolished upon seeing and hearing what Cilan has planned. "Dodge, and use Fury Swipes!" He calls out to the Pansage, the monkey quickly jumping up and using the physical move on Alita as she flies next to it, barely missing her attack. She cries out in shock, the attack cutting her a few times, but she doesn't relent, flying back up into the air and looking at the Pansage angrily. "I'll show you, you little bastard!" She roars in anger, attempting to Peck the Pansage again. "Alita, wait!" I call out to her, but she's far too late into the dive bomb to stop now. 

"Use Vine Whip to grab onto the Pidove!" He tells his Pokemon, who is quick to carry out the order as it wraps both vines around Alita, ensnaring the surprised Pidove as she is caught off guard. "Ah, shit." I mumble to myself, as Alita lets out a shocked yelp. To be honest, I wasn't expecting the Pansage to have that level of accuracy with its vines, but I guess that's what you should expect from a Gym Leader's Pokemon. However, what Cilan tells the Pansage to do next really does make me feel bad for putting Alita out there. "Use its speed to smash it into the rocks!" I freeze at that moment, wanting so bad to run out there and take the hit for the poor bird, but I stop myself, knowing that I cannot interfere with the happenings of a Gym Battle. If I do, then I will be disqualified from the League for a long time.

"Let go of me you stupid fu-" Alita's curse is cut off due to the sudden smash of the vines slamming her into the rock behind the Pansage, the brutal crack of bone snapping because of the high speed impact of bird with stone making my heart stop cold. "Alita!" Chell cries, looking in horror at the fall of her friend as she falls to the floor of the Gym, her wing hanging loose at her side. Katrina and Nesia look shocked as well, to see the result of fights like these sometimes. When Alita stirs, I know that she isn't out for the count, but she's not going to be able to get her wing moving, much less get into the air and fire off her long range attacks. I've got to stop this, before she bites the dust for real. "Ali, return! You've done enough, so let Kat-" I start to say, before she shuts me up with a single word. "No!" She groans, getting to her feet shakily. Even from here, I can see that her injuries are trying to keep her down and take her consciousness from her. However, she doesn't give in to the pain, instead taking a shaky step towards the opposing Pansage. As she does so, she winces, feeling her sagging wing as it drags weakly behind her. "I'm…not…giving up." She breathes, taking another step towards the Pansage.

"Jay, maybe you should call her back." Cilan suggests, looking just as concerned for her well being as I am. "No! I'm not backing down now!" Alita yells, surprising me as she stumbles, but she still stands to face the opposing Pansage. She's still willing to fight on, even though she's already been mortally wounded. Her determination to fight really is quite astounding to see. In that case, there's only one thing that I can do for her. "If you think so, then I believe in you too! Fight on, Ali!" I yell out to her, causing Cilan to look at me incredulously. "Are you crazy!? She's going to die if she takes any more damage!" However, his pleas to end the fight don't stop the rest of the team from cheering her on. "You can do this, Ali!" Chell cheers, calling out to the Pidove. "Do not give in!" Katrina also pitches in, looking quite confident and hopeful in her friend as well.

Hearing the sheer amount of support from her friends only serves to make the Pidove more determined to win this fight, as she takes another step, ignoring the blood trickling from her cuts. "I let them down once, and I'm not about to do it again!" She screams to the heavens, before she starts to glow white. At first, I think that she's using Agility again, but the glow intensifies into a full on white light emanating from her small form. Her body doesn't stay small for long, though, as it starts to grow in size, continuing to grow as the light doesn't let up. "So bright!" Cilan groans, shielding his eyes from the intense glow as the rest of us do the same. However, the light fades as quickly as it appeared, leaving in its wake a bird with the same color scheme as a Pidove, but with a dark grayish tuft of feathers sticking out of its head, along with a light grayish body and a small yellow line under each eye. It also has a significant area of red around the base of its beak, and a large increase in size. The bird Pokemon now standing before us is, without a doubt, a Tranquill.

Chell is immediately shocked by the sudden transformation of her friend. "Whoa, Ali! Is that you? You look so different!" She gushes over the newly evolved Alita, who looks back to her and smirks. "Well, duh! Who else would it be?" She sarcastically remarks, unfolding her newly formed wings and taking to the air once again. "Aw, hell yeah! My wings are healed!" She whoops, hovering in midair as she savors the feeling of being able to take flight again. "That is quite the drastic evolution, Alita." Katrina comments, staring curiously at Alita's newly acquired form. "I know right? Talk about cool! I'm so much bigger now!" She marvels at the changes herself, looking herself over with her head swiveling from left to right, looking herself over. However, moments like these are never complete without a pun, so that's precisely what I throw into this one as well. "Yeah, that's quite the flashy entrance you made there, huh?" At the sound of the pun, Alita groans in annoyance, while Chell bursts out laughing. "God damn it, Jay! Now isn't the time for your stupid jokes!" She yells to me from her aerial view, while the spectacle causes Katrina's smile to get a little wider, while Nesia just shakes her head and sighs.

Even though her appearance has undergone a massive change, that's still the same brash, pun 'hating', hot headed Pidove that I got to know. Now that she can take to the air again, she looks down to the Pansage, who looks equally surprised and concerned as its Trainer to see the downed bird still in the fight. The evolution may prove to be quite the disadvantage to them, that's for sure. "Now that I can fly again, it's time for Round Two!" She grins, confidently staring down the Pansage as she starts to swoop down for another physical attack. Cilan's worry quickly dissipates, as he assumes this to be another simple Peck attack that he can use to his advantage, and so do I. "Grab it, Pansage!" Cilan commands, the Pansage readying its vines to ensnare the Tranquil and do what they did before again. Before I can tell Alita to stop whatever the hell she thinks she's doing, however, she quickly ducks beneath the reach of the vines, shocking both me and Cilan. Having dodged the vines, she dives lower until she skims along the surface of the ground and slams her wing into the Pansage from the front with a blinding speed behind her strike, sending the poor monkey flying into the air. "Pansage, no!" Cilan cries, surprised by the sudden strike out of nowhere. That's Aerial Ace, a Flying Type move that never misses. That's what she learned with her evolution? The timing couldn't have been better.

That strike is the least of his worries now, as the force from the attack sends it right off the ground and into the air. Cilan's eyes widen as he now realizes the massively disadvantageous situation that his Pokemon is in right now. The monkey finally begins to stop ascending, beginning to fall back down to the ground. However, I'm not about to let that happen. "Air Cutter, now!" Alita doesn't need to be told twice, as she quickly launches a storm of blades towards the opposing Pansage. Helpless due to the lack of air maneuverability, the monkey can only watch as it takes blade after blade head on, unable to dodge any of them. After the blades let up, does the unfortunate Pansage finally get sent back to ground level via the force of gravity. The damage of smashing face first into the ground combined with the numerous cuts and the initial Aerial Ace proves to be too much to handle, as it tries to get up after the fall, only to slump back down as swirls appear in its eyes.

As the referee gets a good look at the damage done, he confirms the win with his next announcement. "Pansage is unable to battle! Gym Leader Cilan is also out of usable Pokemon! The victory goes to Jay, the challenger!" As the announcement is made, Chell immediately whoops in glee at our first win in the gym battling side of things. "We won, we won!" She cheers happily, causing Katrina to smile as Alita lands, smirking down at the Oshawott. "Well, duh! Of course we won! They never stood a chance." She gloats confidently, while Nesia just looks on in silence as I shove my hands into my hoodie pockets. "Whew, that was tense." I sigh, as Cilan walks over and gives me a small, shiny little Badge, along with a Badge Case. "This is the Trio Badge, proof of your victory here at the Striaton City Gym. Congratulations, by the way." He smiles, holding out his hand for a shake. Not one to turn down a hand shake, I extend my hand to him and meet his, shaking it after I tuck away the Badge in the Badge Case and put the case in the pocket of my hoodie.

After Chell and I wave the Gym Leaders goodbye, we quickly head off on our way back to the Pokemon Center to get some rest. I take out my trusty bottle of ketchup and take a sip as we walk, the tangy flavor filling my mouth and putting a smile on my face. Since it's a bit closer to nightfall, the air is colder now. The change in temperature causes Alita to start shivering, and Nesia huddles closer to my neck for warmth. Chell and I remain unaffected, due to the layer of fur she has and my hoodie. "Nice job out there, you two." I tell Chell and Alita as we walk past some stores, the items inside proving to be quite interesting to Katrina as she stares at them. "Thanks!" Chell is still pretty chipper, smiling pretty happily at me. "That monkey was just lucky I was holding back." Alita brags, looking quite proud of herself as she rests up in my arms for now. The fight really took a lot out of her, so she decided to treat herself to some arm time. She's a tad too big for my shoulder now, but Nesia can still stay up there. "Oh yeah? You weren't looking too hot about five minutes ago, Ali." I chuckle, rolling m eyes at the overconfidence just radiating from the bird. "H-hey! I still won, ya know." She retorts, huffing as she turns away in anger and annoyance as I knock her down a peg.

"Yeah, I know that. I'm real sorry about making you do something that stupid, going in up close to something that could grab you out of the air like that." I apologize, causing her to look my way again. She still looks angry, but she doesn't look at me when she replies. "You don't have to apologize. I wasn't really listening to you when I charged that monkey…" She trails off as her angry expression fades, obviously not that comfortable with the idea of apologizing to others. "That's fine. At least you're not hurt too badly now, right?" I tell her, placing my chin on her head while holding her closer to my chest, which causes her to let out a shocked gasp. "What are you doing?" She asks, not too loud about it this time. "Meh, my neck just felt tired, and your head just so happened to be there. Besides, this way you can share some of my warmth." I shrug, causing her to blush a little. "It's not like I really need it, you idiot…" She tells me, trying to hide her embarrassment by looking away from me. Don't know why she's looking so flustered, though. Probably due to the intimacy, but I don't really mind.

Although I'm enjoying seeing her flustered like this, I can't help but notice that we're missing something. "Wait a sec. Where's Kat?" I ask, finally noticing the absence of our feline friend. Just then, I see Nesia pointing towards a particular store, seeing Katrina run out a second later, some items in her tail. Upon closer inspection, those are evolution stones and gold nuggets that she snagged. Sighing, I face palm as I finally hear the owners of the store shout in shock due to the missing items. As Katrina giggles, I sigh in exasperation. "Really, Kat…"


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

[Jay]

"Sorry about that, man." I tell the owner of the valuables store, handing him back the items that Katrina swiped from under his nose. After Katrina decided to make a scene out of stealing those valuable items off the shelves of that store, I just had to give them back to the store owners. Honestly, her idea of fun is kind of taking it a step too far. But it is what she likes doing, so I'm not one to stop her from doing it. I'm just the one that has to clean it all up afterwards.

That doesn't really mean that I'm really spared from any consequences of her actions, though. The sheer amount of ear chewing I'm getting right now is really unbearable, and honestly unnecessary. "Honestly, you really should learn how to discipline your Pokemon! You can't let them run amok outside of their Pokeballs when you run around cities like this!" To make matters worse, the store owner is someone who doesn't exactly see Pokemon as equally intelligent and sapient beings, referring to them like they're animals or something. Meanwhile, I can already feel the burning hatred for the guy just emitting off of the recently evolved Alita. Her eyes are narrowed, her gaze locked on the offending store owner as she growls. I'm not really paying attention to his ramblings, just more worried about the fact that Alita looks like she's about to tear the guy a new one. And factoring in that she just evolved and knows how to use Aerial Ace, she's gonna end his life faster than I'll be able to blink, much less stop her.

As much I would like to see how two assholes would work on the same human, I want to not incur medical fees even more. As such, I decide to cut his ranting short. "What's that over there?" I ask him with a raised eyebrow, pointing my finger over in the direction behind the guy in an over the top manner. Luckily for me, the guy doesn't pay much attention to how suspicious I was sounding, as he turns in the exact direction that I wanted him to turn to. "I don't see anything." He tells me, lifting a hand to his forehead to gain better focus on what I'm staring at. I smirk as he tries to get a bead on what I supposedly saw. This is just perfect. Nesia quickly takes a glance at the direction I'm pointing at, but quickly realizes that I'm not focusing at anything at all, seeing through my bluff in an instant. She doesn't say anything, but her expression is telling me that she's debating over whether I'm onto something, or just plain stupid.

"I don't see anything, Mister Jay…" Chell squints off in the distance, also falling for my bluff, it seems. "No, kiddo. I'm just bluffing. There's nothing there." I whisper to the Oshawott on my shoulder, before leaning down to address Katrina. "The second you hear the word distraction, we're making a dash for the Pokemon Center, got it?" I ask her, to which she nods in confirmation. "I'm not seeing what you're seeing, kid." The guy tells me, still staring with his back turned to me. "No, no, no! Look right there! It's a distraction!" I tell him, while turning my own back to his and making a break for the Pokemon Center, Katrina following right behind me as we quickly take our leave.

By the time we make our way to the Pokemon Center and open its doors, we finally hear the faint yells of the tricked and now quite pissed off store owner. As I walk over to the elevator area and tap the button to go up, I chuckle at the scene I witnessed just now. "That individual was quite gullible, to say the least." Katrina speaks up once the doors close, her smile most likely due to having had her thieving fun without suffering the backlash of ear chewing. "Man, that guy was dumb. How'd ya know he'd fall for it?" Alita smirks, looking pretty amused herself as her smirk is more of mirth than anything else. Nesia is also looking at me with a surprised expression, probably due to not having been expecting such a solid plan from me.

"To be honest, I didn't know that he would fall for something like that. That was dumb luck." I shrug at her in reply, causing Alita to look at me incredulously, while Nesia rolls her eyes in annoyance. "What." Alita deadpans, giving me a what-the-hell-were-you-thinking look. Katrina giggles with her paw covering her mouth, most likely due to my stupidity as well as Alita's reaction to the big reveal of the reasoning behind my plan. "Hey, no risk, no reward, am I right?" I try to defend myself and my reasoning, but another eyeroll and another deadpan from Alita quickly shoots me down. I mock frown, faking my sadness in a dramatic way as I step out of the elevator doors to make my way to our room.

After opening the door to our room (as well as making sure that my keycard didn't get swiped by Katrina this time), we enter the rented room for some well needed rest and relaxation as I plop myself down onto the couch, Chell once again returning to her normal routine of leaping onto the bed and jumping around. "Whee! Whee! Come on, Nessie! It's really fun!" Chell giggles, using the bed as her personal bouncy castle as Nesia tries to get some rest. Emphasis on tries. By the looks of it, she's not gonna get some R and R any time soon. Meanwhile, things are a lot calmer on the couch, as Katrina and Alita join me on the soft piece of heaven. Turning on the TV to a documentary about the lives of infant animals, I sigh as I watch the show unfold and relax into the soft fabric and cushions of the sitting apparatus.

As I watch the mongoose babies get into a conflict with some other members of the group, I notice Katrina rest her head on my lap. Looking closer, I can see that her expression is calm, her attention solely focused on the screen of the television, watching the events unfold with close attention. Her ears twitch every now and then, picking up the sounds around her other than the TV commentary that the British sounding man is making about the baby animals. As such, I decide to scratch her behind her ears out of curiosity, to see how she would react. She lets out a surprised gasp the second I place my hand there, but soon purrs happily as I scratch her there, her face showing me that she clearly enjoys the feeling as her leg occasionally twitches and she nuzzles my chest and lap.

Chuckling, I use my other hand to rub her back, my hand gliding along her smooth fur and causing her to purr a little louder. "Geez, Kat. Does this really feel that good to you?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow in curiosity as I keep up my ministrations. "Indeed it does, Jay. Your touch is simply divine…" Katrina sighs blissfully, her eyes closed in content as she enjoys my touch, purring like a revved up motor. Meanwhile, Alita snickers at Katrina, my touching and her purring having attracted the bird's attention. "Of course the cat would like it." She comments as she observes the scene before her. Meanwhile, Nesia, who's decided that she has had enough of the hyperactive little ball of fur, joins us on the couch as she uses her vines to lift herself onto it. Naturally, the prospect of new information to pick up interests her, as her attention is now mainly directed to the television. The channel has now switched to one about the basics of money, like coins and stuff.

"I recommend that you request a caressing from Jay, Alita. Only then will you understand how amazing this feels." Katrina replies to Alita's snide comment, causing her to look at Katrina in shock. 'What!? No!" She quickly huffs in reply, causing me to look her way in confusion. "Why not?" I ask her, causing her face to flush in embarrassment as she looks away from me. "Because… just because!" She grumbles, her expression rather angry. Sighing, I gently poke Katrina to get her attention, snapping her out of her bliss-induced stupor. "Hmm? What's the matter, Jay?" She asks, looking a little dejected that I had cut her happiness short. "Someone needs to relax a little, don'tcha think?" I ask her emphasizing the target being Alita as I move my irises towards her quickly and back again a few times, which causes her to nod in agreement.

As our plan is set in motion, I see Nesia looking at us curiously, seemingly catching onto what we're trying to do. She doesn't say anything, but her narrowed eyes tell me that she's quite suspicious of my actions, looking at me with undivided attention as I carry out my plans. Reaching for Alita's still form, I scoop her off the couch and place her in my lap with one swift motion. "Wha-Hey! What the hell are you doing, you idiot!?" Alita yelps, angered and shocked by my sudden meddling of her body, but a few strokes of her feathery coat soon clam her up.

"Nnngh…" She just made a heavily suppressed sound of pleasure, but a sound of pleasure nevertheless. She's trying real hard not to coo, and by the way I'm literally raking her back with my fingertips so she can feel the full extent of what I'm doing, it's hard not to see why. Meanwhile, it's Katrina's turn to smirk at the now hapless bird, now on the verge of cooing from the treatment I'm giving her back and her wings. I make sure to gently stoke her wingtips as well, as they are the prime sensitive spots of many birds, Pokemon or not. It's also the most platonic, non-sexual approach I can think of, as touching a bird's erogenous zones pretty much screams at them that you want to fuck right now.

Alita notices Katrina's smile, and narrows her eyes as best as she can. "W-what's so funny, h-huh?" She stutters, almost letting out more pleasured sounds as I touch her in a pleasant manner. Giggling in mirth at the reactions of her avian friend, Katrina just soaks in the sight of the bird that is struggling against the urge to voice her delight. "Give in to the pleasurable sensations, Alita." Katrina persuades the bird, trying to get her to cave in. "N-no! I d-don't like it!" Alita retorts shakily, causing me to sigh in exasperation. "Be honest. If it feels good, just go with it." I tell her, which makes her shake her head vigorously in denial of what she's feeling. "It doesn't feel that good, you idiot!" She growls at me while I pay her no mind, continuing to caress her frame. Despite having heard her say that the feeling wasn't entirely undesirable, I suddenly take my hands off her.

She doesn't look all that happy that I had stopped my stroking of her wings and body, looking at me with a face of confusion as I retract my hands. Before she can say anything, however, I stop her with a serious face, all manner of smile gone as I address her. "Woah, what's up?" She asks, taken aback by the sudden change in mood. "Okay then, Alita. If you really didn't like what I was doing, then I promise not to touch you like that ever again." I tell her in a serious manner, looking at her as she diverts her eyes away from me, now looking a little sad. "I mean, you don't have to never do it again…" She tells me, her reply to me barely audible. However, I can clearly hear her say it, and so can Katrina.

Smiling at her gently now, I ask her something else. "Now, would you mind if I did that again?" I ask her, causing her to look at me, still with that sad look on her face. "I…want you…to touch me again…" She tells me, as I chuckle and resume my caressing of her soft, warm body. "There. Was it that hard to ask me?" I reply, as I stroke her wings gently and rake my fingers across her back again. This time, she actually stops trying to suppress the sound her body wants to make, her soft cooing really calming to the mind and making me smile as she's finally being honest to herself. "See? If ya ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to help you, since you already help me with battling and all. That's what teammates do for each other." I tell her, which causes her to chuckle a bit. "I guess it isn't that bad, with you helping me and all…" She replies, however her frown still remains. Does the thought of me helping her out really bug her that much? Nesia looks plenty surprised, on the other hand. Was she expecting me to do something else? She's seen me use the same type of affection on most of the team at this point, so I don't get why she's so shell shocked.

I don't get to dwell on the thought for long, though, as what I need to get done next presents itself to me in the form of a small, sad looking Oshawott. "Mister Jayyyy...I'm hungry…" Chell whines, her hunger plain to see from her needy whining and her begging expression. The expression on her face could probably force a freaking Primape to stop rampaging. It's sure as hell stopping me from ignoring her, alright. Sighing, I take a look at the clock on the wall and see that it's almost time to head on down to the dining area for some dinner. "Alright, team. I think it about time to head downstairs for some food." The way I see it, Chell's gonna take a bite out of me if I don't get her something else to munch on first. "Sounds good. I'm pretty hungry myself." Alita speaks up, quickly getting Katrina to agree with her. "Agreed. I am rather famished, as well." She replies, gracefully leaping off the couch and onto the floor in one swift motion, slinking off towards the door as I stand up to hold Alita in my arms and get Chell and Nesia off the sofa.

As we step out of the room to head on down to the elevator, though, I hear a familiar voice coming from the left of me. "Brother!" Yupia joyfully sweeps me up into a hug, causing me to drop Alita in surprise and shock. Alita lets out a yelp due to the sudden drop, but quickly manages to unfurl her wings and slow her descent towards ground level. "Geez, sis. Ya scared me back there." I sigh, while Alita brushes herself off from the perilous fall she had just experienced. "Next time, warn me when you decide to drop me, you idiot!" She yells, pecking me in the side of my leg. If you don't know, a peck from a bird goes far from unfelt. "Ow! Geez, Ali. Save some of that anger for the opponents, will ya?" I wince in pain, rubbing my now pricked leg as she huffs and looks away from me. "I didn't mean to drop ya, 'kay? Sorry about that." I tell her, which causes her to look back my way. "It's fine." She quickly says, not really letting on what she's thinking about at the moment. However, I can tell that something is on her mind right now. The Alita I know wouldn't just let it go like that.

I still am not allowed some time to give that idea any though, however, as Yupia quickly moves on to the next topic of interest to her at the moment. "Did you already best the Gym here, brother?" She asks me, to which I nod. "Yup, already did. You?" I ask, to which she proudly shows me her newly acquired Badge Case and her Trio Badge sitting nicely in its holder. "Of course I did! I am quite amazing, after all." She declares, putting her hand on her hips as she grins in triumph. "You're so cool sis…" I tell her, genuinely amazed at how confident she is in herself. How come that confidence never rubbed off on me, even though we literally grew up together? That's kinda unfair, if you ask me…

"So, brother. Should we do battle after we eat? I feel like my team has gotten stronger, and I'd like to have a rematch." Yupia looks at me with a grin and a determined glint in her eyes as we wait for the elevator to take us down to the dining hall. "Deal. How many Pokemon do you have now, sis?" I ask her, to which she smirks confidently. "I still only have two!" She replies, to which I sigh. She may be confident in herself, but she's not really willing to get much outside help at all. Hey, at least she's not doubting herself about it… "You seem quite de-team-mined to win, sis. How about a two on two match this time. You use two, I'll use two. Sound good?" I tell her, just to even the odds a little. Meanwhile, Alita groans upon hearing another pun, while I hear Chell giggling beside me. Not too much of a win if I win with more team members, anyway. "Sounds good, brother! Ignoring your poor taste in jokes, I accept your condition!" She grins, immediately striding out of the elevator once we hit the dining hall. She's undoubtedly off to find the spaghetti again, so I should get her and the team a seat first.

It doesn't take us long to find a table, as we seem to be a mite early. Chell once again runs off to find herself some food, while I lead the rest of the team in search of some food items. Katrina, however, decides to split from the group this time. "I should be able to carry the plates by myself this time around. I shall meet up with you back at the table." She tells me, before slinking off to find her own food preferences elsewhere. That just leaves me with Nesia and Alita as I pick up my own plate to find some food. "So, what do you two wanna eat this time?" I ask the both of them as I wander towards the spaghetti plate, piling some of the strands onto my own plate, while spooning some meaty tomato sauce onto them.

"I just want some berries, Jay." Alita mumbles, which throws me off guard completely. She's normally more enthusiastic when dealing with her own food needs, so for her to sound so uninterested isn't normal. However, I decide to push that to the back of my mind for now, as she doesn't look like she wants to talk about it for now. "Alright, then. Hey Ness, do ya want some berries too, or would ya like something else to eat?" I ask Nesia, due to the increased amount of staring that she's directing towards the section with the vegetable salads this time around. She quickly shakes her head to say no. "Are ya sure? 'Cause I've been noticing you taking more than your fair share of peeks at the veg over there." I raise an eyebrow and smile as I tell her, which causes her to look at me in shock. "…You noticed?" She asks me after some hesitation. "Yeah. If you really want some, go ahead and ask." I tell her, not too sure why she won't tell me what she wants. "…But isn't it troublesome?" She asks me, to which I shake my head. "No. What makes you think that?" I tell her, honestly not getting why she'd think something like that. "Then I'd like some vegetable salad, then." She tells me, a small smile breaking past her usually emotionless features as she points to the salad section.

That smile really looks nice on her, as I haven't seen her do that at all before. It's kind of cute, if I'm being honest. "Ness? You should smile more. You look cute like that." I speak my mind, which causes her to quickly avert her gaze from mine as her expression becomes a mite flustered. To me, however, it just makes her all the cuter. I think my heart's gonna give out if I keep getting exposed to this much cute… "…Thank you." She replies, her smile now bigger than I've ever seen it before. "No prob, Ness." I reply, grabbing a bowl of vegetable salad for her as I walk across the tables to get the berries that Alita wants to chow down on.

Walking out of the crowd around the food tables and heading back over to our own table, I can already see that my sister and her Pokemon have found our table and have taken a seat, as well as the rest of my team. Chell's already halfway through her food, munching away like no tomorrow, so I decide to sit down and join them, placing Alita and Nesia onto the table along with me as well. As we all chow down, I can see Nesia taking larger bites out of her food than usual, with a small smile on her face as leaf after leaf of lettuce disappears from her bowl. "Tastes that good, huh?" I ask her, to which she looks at me and nods, before returning to her bowl and taking more bites out of the leaves. However, she seems to notice herself smiling, as her expression quickly morphs back into her usual, emotionless stare. Seems she's still rather reluctant to show emotion around me, huh…

We all finish our food quickly, so me and Yupia quickly head off to the arena and take our sides, Yupia raring to go as she sends out her first Pokemon. "You beat me the last time, but this time I will emerge victorious! Go, Tepig!" She declares, throwing out a Pokeball which opens and reveals the small fire pig Pokemon in a flash of light. As soon as he sees me, he smirks. "It's you again! I'll kick your ass this time around!" I return his smirk with my own as I decide who to send out. "Alright, so who wants to go? I can only go with two of you, just so ya know." I tell them, waiting to see who decides to fight with me this time around.

So, imagine my surprise when Nesia actually lifts a hand into the air. "Ness? Are ya sure that you wanna do this?" I ask her, to which she nods in confirmation of her choice. "Yes." She tells me, which just surprises me even more. "Sure, if ya want to. Anyone else?" I ask, to which I see Chell just raise her paw into the air after Nesia does. "Me! Me! Pick me!" She pleads with me, full of energy as she does so. Sighing, I nod in agreement of her decision. "Okay, then. Chell and Nesia, you two are my battle partners for this round. Chell, I want you to go first. I don't want Nesia to get hurt too bad due to the typing problem." I tell her, pointing to the Tepig that looks like he's ready to burn whatever lands in front of him. Nodding, Chell takes her stand on our side of the field as my sister begins our fight. "Go, Tepig! I hope you're ready, brother." She smirks, while I smile back. "Ready. Let's go, Chell!" "You got it, Mister Jay!" Chell nods in response, moving in to strike as our fight kicks off.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

[Jay]

As usual, Yupia starts off our confrontation. "Use Ember, Tepig!" She commands. "Gotcha, Boss!" Tepig quickly complies, shooting out a blast of small flames that immediately gain speed and head for Chell. "Use your Scalchop to block the flames!" I tell her. "On it!" Chell replies, immediately pulls out her scalchop and using the wide side of the blue blade to try and block the flaming pellets. Well, emphasis on try. She does end up blocking the majority of the attack, but a few pellets scrape and slightly hurt her regardless. Shit. There's just too many pellets to block with her blade at once, so maybe using a different attack to intercept Ember would be a better option.

Yupia smirks, knowing that by the pained expression on Chell's face and the look of thought on mine that she has found a little bit of a crutch that she can exploit for now. However, she doesn't seem to realize that using the same trick twice usually never ends well. "Use Ember again, Tepig!" She smirks, Tepig taking in another breath and spewing out another cloud of small embers at Chell. This time around, though, I'm prepared for the ranged assault. "Chell, use Water Gun!" I tell her, as Chell takes in a deep breath herself and spews forth a stream of water at the cloud of small flames. The resulting blast of water manages to create a hole through the ember cloud, hitting the opposing Tepig right in his snout, while the rest of the embers harmlessly disperse into thin air, none of them actually making it to Chell to deal out any damage. "Ow!" Tepig shouts in surprise, as he obviously didn't see that one coming. The Ember cloud may be nice to use as a distraction, but one attack or two is all it takes to dispel it and reveal the target on the other side.

"Tepig! Are you alright!?" Yupia calls out to her Pokemon, the small fire pig snorting out the water in his nose and looking back over to his trainer with a smirk. "I'll be fine, Boss! A little water won't stop me!" He replies, causing Yupia to grin back at him. "Then let us continue the fight, friend! Use Ember again!" She commands, Tepig letting out the cloud of smoking flames once more as it obstructs my vision, as well as Chell's. While Chell looks confused, I just let out a sigh. This simple trick again? When will she learn? "Chell, use Water Gun again!" I tell her, Chell releasing another blast of water that dispels the cloud of smog, revealing once again the-

Hold on. Where is that Tepig that's supposed to be on the other side of this cloud? Looking at my sister, I find a wide grin to be plastered on her face now. Shit. I got played! Frantically looking around the arena to find any trace of the opposing Tepig, I call out to Chell in the meantime. "Stay alert, Chell! Try and find him!" I tell her, Chell looking around with her scalchop raised. As I look around the field, I notice a second too late that there are some embers behind Chell that haven't been dispelled yet. Crap, this is bad. I can even make out the small form of the Tepig that's hiding behind those embers. What's even worse is that Chell hasn't even figured out that the opposing fire pig is right behind her, just waiting to strike her from behind.

"Chell, look out behind you!" I try to warm her of the imminent threat, but it's already too late. As soon as I see the embers clear, I can see Tepig surrounded in a fiery aura. "Strike now, Tepig!" Yupia commands, Tepig charging forth while still covered in flames. "Huh?" Thant's all Chell manages to say before the flaming Tepig crashes into her backside with no shortage of power, causing Chell to be pushed back a few feet. Chell can only let out a strangled yelp as she gets the wind knocked out of her, the attack really catching her off guard. Stumbling, but otherwise unharmed, Chell quickly shakes off the fire damage and gets to her feet, the impact caused by the Fire Type move mostly negated by her typing advantage. "A superb Flame Charge, Tepig!" Yupia cheers with glee while her Pokemon smirks, snorting to let out a small blast of heat. "No problem, Boss!" Tepig replies, looking pretty damn confident now.

Meanwhile, I can still see Chell trying to shake off the shock of getting hit out of nowhere. "You okay there, Chell?" I ask her, to which she quickly corrects her stance and nods. "I can still fight, Mister Jay!" She declares, looking back at the opposing side to stare at the Tepig, not letting it escape her sight again. However, by the smirk on Yupia's face that's still not going away, and the completely calm facial expression on the face of the Tepig, I can tell that I've somehow fallen right into their hands. I tense up as I see my sister smirk, waiting for her to make the first move. Just what do you have planned, sis?

"Use Ember again, Tepig!" Yupia calls out to her Pokemon, who sends out another barrage of small flames that quickly group smoke together to form another cloud, once again obscuring my vision of the opponent. However, this time I'm prepared for the same old trick. "Quick, Chell! Use Water Gun on the embers, before he disappears again!" As per my command, Chell quickly lets loose a couple quick blasts of water to disperse the flame shroud in a hurry, but as soon as the embers clear, I can already see the Tepig charged up and moving in for another Flame Charge aimed right for Chell's back. "Chell! Block the charge from behind you!" Chell quickly manages to turn around this time, using her raised scalchop to block the incoming attack. Due to her blade being made of water, and the Tepig having used a fire attack that requires the use of flames, the typing advantage quickly causes the flames shrouding the Tepig to extinguish, revealing the vulnerable, helpless Pokemon within. The Tepig squeals in shock, while I let my smirk show. This is just perfect. Without his flame shroud, he's wide open for an attack. Normally his flames would have negated most of any attack, but now he's exposed, and at such a close range…

"Tepig! Get out of there!" Yupia calls out to him, but it's already too late. He's still reeling from the momentum needed to charge Chell, and Chell's still completely aware that her opponent is right in front of her. However, when you think that you have the situation under control, you usually end up getting cocky. And everybody knows that when you get cocky, you're most likely to do something stupid. "Use Razor Shell!" I end up blurting out, Chell quickly obliging by removing her scalchop from its position to block the Tepig's charge in order to attack the opponent. I do take into account that Razor Shell, being a Water Type move, will be really effective against the Fire Type. What I don't take into account is that since the scalchop is currently being used to stop the advance of the Tepig right into Chell's chest, removing the weapon would result in the slamming of the Tepig right into Chell before the sword would be able to connect with the Tepig. It's a really stupid beginner's mistake that anyone without prior brain cells would make, to be completely honest.

And as a result, I manage to clearly see the error of my decision. The second the scalchop was removed from the blocking position it was in, Tepig was now allowed full freedom to smash head first into Chell and deal some considerable damage to her. Yupia notices this as well, and is quick to take advantage of my sudden stupidity. "Tepig, use Tackle!" She commands, causing my eyes to widen as I quickly realize the full extent of my idiocy. That is exactly what happens, as Chell is brutally rammed into before she could even swing her sword back into the opposing Tepig. Crying out in pain, she's quickly swept off her feet and sent rolling into the dirt as the momentum from the attack is more than enough to overpower her stance. After rolling to a stop, she groans as she manages to shakily get to her feet. However, I can already see that she's quite bruised from the initial Tackle attack and the roll in the dirt. "Chell, you doing okay!?" I call out to her, now very much worried for her well being as she struggles to keep herself standing.

"Use Flame Charge again, Tepig!" Yupia, who's quickly noticed my Pokemon's state of weakness, decides to call upon her Tepig to launch another Flame Charge to secure her victory in a hurry. Even though the situation is now far from salvageable, I still try to get her out of harm's way. "Chell, use your scalchop to block it!" I desperately tell her, trying to get her to save herself from the incoming world of hurt, but it's already much too late. My sister's offensive, although very direct and easily countered, ends up working a damn treat. As Chell struggles to raise her scalchop to block the incoming assault, she just doesn't have the energy to do so. After a few quick bouts of Flame Charge from Tepig, she goes down like a sack of potatoes. As she falls to the ground, I can see the swirls in her eyes as proof that she's been completely knocked out.

"Oshawott is unable to continue! Tepig wins! The first round of the fight goes to Yupia!" The judge announces, which causes the crowd that's been watching up until this point to break out in cheering and applause for my sister. "Thank you for the support, dear people!" She gladly accepts the positivity from the crowd with stride, waving her hands in the air proudly. Meanwhile, I rush over to retrieve my barely conscious friend off the battlefield. Quickly scooping up Chell's limp form, I run back over to my side of the field, just in time to see her open her eyes again. Taking a closer look at her, she looks a mite disappointed. "I'm sorry, Mister Jay. I couldn't win…" She weakly says, to which I gently hold a finger to her lips to stop her from talking. "Shh, it's fine. Just rest up for now, eh?" I tell her, placing her down onto the bench on my side of the field. "But I-" She starts, but I shush her again. "It's fine, 'kay? You did your best, and that's all I could have ever asked from ya."

This causes her to blush a little under her fur and causes her facial expression to morph into one of confusion, before she giggles. "Thanks, Mister Jay." She tells me, smiling at me as I leave her on the bench with the others. "Come on, Ness. It's about high time you had a turn." I tell the Snivy, who nods in reply as she quickly leaps off the bench and runs over to me. "You ready for this?" I ask her, to which she nods in confirmation of her earlier decision. "Alright then, let's do this!" I give her a thumbs-up as she takes Chell's place on our side of the arena. My sister gives me a look of confusion and concern. "Are you sure that you want to do this, Brother?" She asks, to which I smirk at her in return. "Yeah, I do. Ness wants to, and if I didn't take her interests into account, I wouldn't make much of a Trainer, now would I?" When Yupia hears what I have to say, she smirks in return to mine. "Well said, Brother. However, I should warn you that I won't go easy on you." However, her threat falls on deaf ears, as I taunt her in return. "I wouldn't dream of it, sis."

I give the referee the signal that we are ready to continue, and he is quick to announce the continuation of the fight. "Ready? Begin!" Without much of a thought, Yupia once again starts off the fight. "Use Flame Charge again, Tepig!" Yupia gives out the order to her Pokemon, Tepig complying almost immediately by surrounding himself in a fiery aura and charging straight at Nesia. It seems that she's a little more confident in her own Pokemon's attacking skills this time, since she's not bothering to have her Tepig raise up the cloud of embers to serve as another distraction. I wouldn't really blame her for doing so, anyways. With the speed advantage that she's built up for Tepig by allowing him to use all those Flame Charges, I can see the fruits of her labor put to good use as Tepig rushes forth with a surprising amount of speed, almost managing to slip past the quick reflexes and eyesight of Nesia and land a critically important hit. "Quickly, Ness! Use Vine Whip to slam it into the ground!" I tell her, as she quickly uses her vines to lash out at the Tepig.

However, the key word in this situation is almost. Even though the combined amount of previous Flame Charges amounts to three stages of speed increase that Tepig has managed to accrue, Snivy are still able to detect and react much faster to all types of attacks, due to the naturally predatory abilities that they posses. Although not as efficient as their fully serpentine counterparts, they are still quite capable of responding to and dealing with potential threats. Take this charging Tepig for example. He thinks that he can connect his Flame Charge with Nesia faster than she will be able to react to him, but she's already in full realization of the potential threat that this Pokemon provides to her well being. As such, she is fully able to carry out my command to use Vine Whip to grab the small fire pig and slam him into the ground, snapping him out of his attack and effectively dispersing the extra flames that would be used to boost his speed stat even further.

"Ow! That hurt, damnit!" The Tepig groans, the sudden impact with the hard ground not really sitting well with him. Regardless, he quickly gets up and shakes off the damage taken from the ground slam, seemingly unaffected by the attack. Nesia quickly retracts her vines before the Tepig can do any more damage to them, as I can see small burn marks lining the part where she had touched the Tepig's flaming body back then. "That was quite the smart move, Brother! However, don't expect the rest of the fight to be as easy as that!" My sister warns me, her smirk quickly replacing her shocked expression due to having her partner's Flame Charge so rudely interrupted. Sure, Nesia did more damage, but Tepig also has more health than she does, meaning that I can't really do something that direct and aggressive again if I want to have a chance of winning. But in order to figure out what to do, I need to figure out what other moves that she can use. And it would be equally time consuming and embarrassing if I asked my own Pokemon if she could use a certain move during a match! Shit, what to do, what to do…

Oh wait.

I have a Pokedex on me. It's in my hoodie pocket.

Sighing, I quickly do a face palm before I start rummaging around in my hoodie pocket for my Pokedex. However, my face palm does attract the attention of a quite a few of the audience that had gathered to watch our fight, some of them wincing as they hear the loud slap of hand connecting to idiotic face. Even my sister can't help but wince as she looks at me in confusion. "Brother, are you okay? You look frustrated." She points out the obvious, while I stop her with a wave of my hand. "I'm fine. I just realized how much of an idiot I really am." I sigh, as I finally find the small device and scan Nesia quickly. After less than a few seconds, her moves pop up, which allow me some relief and cause me no shortage of shock as I see that she knows both Energy Ball and Grass Knot. Holy crap, she knows those two moves already!? This makes life so much easier for me!

As those thoughts run through my head, I can already see that the concern and shock from seeing me face palm has already worn off for Yupia, as she quickly tells her Tepig what to do next. "Use Ember, Tepig!"She quickly commands, Tepig snorting out another large cloud of smoking embers to quickly obscure Nesia's vision of the opposing side. Ah, crap. She's using the smarter tactic again, which means that she's about to chain in another Flame Charge soon enough. It's a nice maneuver to use for any situation, but she seems to forget that vision of the opponent is blocked off on both sides of the fight. This means that I have a small window of time to set up a counter measure to deal with the ever so annoying hidden Flame Charge technique that she seems to love using.

Setup against this kind of unsuspecting attack would be impossible, if not for the fact that Nesia knew how to use Grass Knot. Quickly, I tell her my plan, not loud enough for Yupia and her Tepig to catch wind of. She quickly understands what I'm trying to do, and nods to show her understanding as she sets the plan of attack into motion. Her eyes glow a shade of light green as she sets up a circle of grass blades around herself, the grass quickly knotting itself into an array of convenient little trip hazards around her small form. After that, she just lies in wait. As the embers in front of us clear off to the sides, I can barely make out the Tepig hidden within the haze to the left of Nesia, shrouded in flames and ready to charge her down. He's paying way too much attention to the grass snake in front of him, not noticing the subtle protrusions of grass sticking out from the ground around her. "Now, Tepig!" Yupia commands, Tepig charging straight at Nesia in an attempt to run her down. He's gotta get closer, or else he's gonna know something's up.

Closer…Closer…Now! "Jump, Nesia!" I tell her, to which she uses her vines to jump straight up and over the charging Tepig, who notices a second too late the grass trip wires that quickly send him sprawling into the dirt and puts out the flames surrounding him. "Use Vine Whip to launch him into the air, then use Energy Ball!" Neisa is quick to carry out the orders, quickly wrapping her vines around the now extinguished Tepig and flinging him into the air. Now airborne, he can't do much but watch as a glowing green energy ball collects on Nesia's tail, which she flings at him after it reaches a certain size. The resulting explosion sends him smashing into the ground once more, rendering him unconscious as the combined assault prove to be too much to handle. "Tepig! No!" Yupia cries, but it's already far too late.

"Tepig is unable to battle! Snivy wins!" The ref announces, which causes the crowd to whoop and cheer at the end of another exciting fight. I don't really respond to the cheering, but I do walk up to Nesia and pat her on the head. "Well done, Ness. I gotta say, you're really tough for someone your size." I complement her, which causes her to give me a small smile in response to my positivity. I then proceed to pat her on the head. "What are you doing?" She asks, wearing a confused expression as I continue to give her some head pats. "I'm patting you on the head, Ness. It's a thing humans do, to show our affection for humans smaller than us." I tell her, to which she continues to wear the confused expression, but she doesn't resist the gesture. "I don't dislike it, but…" She trails off, looking away from me.

Removing my hand from her head, I quickly stand up and walk back over to my side of the arena, as my sister sends out her second Pokemon. She quickly throws out her second Pokeball, revealing her Lilipup in a flash of light. "You may have bested my Tepig, but Lilipup won't go down easily, either!" She declares, causing me to smirk challengingly at her. "Alright, then. You ready to fight Ness?" I ask her, getting a nod as Yupia and I stare each other down, ready to fight this last round out. "Ready? Begin!" The referee announces, quickly kicking off our last fight. "Use Work Up, Lilipup!" Yupia commands, the puppy Pokemon quickly surrounding itself in a barely noticeable aura that quickly dissipates afterwards, giving it a boost to its Attack and Special Attack stats. 

Already giving her teammate a boost in power, I see. Not that bad of a strategy, but considering that Pokemon usually need some level of recovery time after using a skill that buffs stats means that I could probably score a couple hits. Nesia's fast as well, so I could very well weave around the Lilipup's attacks without getting hit too much. "Use Vine Whip to grab 'em, Ness!" I quickly issue the command, Nesia quickly using her vines to ensnare the Lilipup in her grasp. However, yupia's smirk tells me that she had actually anticipated that little trick. "Bite the vines and use them to pull it in!" She responds to my attack in kind, her Lilipup quickly yanking on the vines hard, sending Nesia flying off her feet and hurtling uncontrollably at the opposing puppy. And since her vines are currently unusable due to the dog's teeth sinking into them, she's in some deep trouble right now. Shit.

"Now, use Takedown!" Yupia tells her Lilipup, the dog Pokemon quickly breaking into a charge while surrounded by a yellow aura, meeting the airborne Nesia head on as the two collide into each other. The force of being slammed into such a powerful attack sends the Snivy crashing into a nearby wall of the arena, knocking her out and leaving a rather large indent in the wall. "Snivy is unable to continue! Lilipup wins! The victory goes to Yupia!" The ref announces, ending the fight as the crowd gathers around Yupia to congratulate her on her win. "Oh no! The flattery…It's too much!" My sister cries, not used to this amount of complements thrown her way.

Meanwhile, I quickly head on over to pick Nesia up off the ground. "You okay there, Ness? That was rough." I quickly ask her as soon as I get to her small form and pick her up, to which she replies with a shake of her head. "I'm fine." I smile at her as I pick up Chell and take our leave, the rest of the team following behind as make our way over to the healing machines stationed somewhere outside the arena. "You were great out there, you two. I'm real proud of you." I tell them, which gets a wide grin out of Chell and a small smile out of Nesia that fades soon after. "That was quite the extraordinary fight you two had out there." Katrina speaks up, causing Chell to smile at her from her place in my arms. "Thanks, Kat." However, Alita remains silent. No complaint about not being allowed to fight, nothing. Something's up, and I need to know what.

"Now, let's get going, eh? I dunno about you girls, but I'm feeling a mite tired after all that thinking. Let's just head on back up to the room once you two recover, and watch some more TV. Sound good?" I ask. "Sounds good, Mister Jay!" Chell replies, while Nesia nods in agreement. "I agree. Some entertainment would be desirable." Katrina agrees as well, her tail swishing gently behind her as we make our way out of the area.

However, our night out isn't over just yet. "Hold it right there, Jay!" I hear a pompous, arrogant voice call out to me, and by the way Katrina's looking behind me in quite the pissed off manner, I can already tell who it is. Sighing, I turn around to see none other than the last person I'd ever want to lay eyes on.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

[Jay]

"Oh, hey. What do you want?" I ask Jimmy, my usual smile still on my face as he addresses me with all the respect that one would give a piece of crap. However, it's pretty obvious to see that my façade won't hold for much longer. My smile is already threatening to crack, and I hope I get to bash the little shit's skull in when that happens. The team is suddenly on edge as well, Katrina narrowing her eyes and her tail standing straight up, while Chell and Alita's eyes narrow and show off no lack of hostility. Nesia, however, doesn't seem to be angry at the guy. In fact, she seems to be scared of the little rich punk standing right in front of me.

Of course, Jimmy is blind to the fact that so many individuals would much rather have him leave, as usual. He's just as much of a prick as he was the last time I saw him, so I don't waste my time in trying to say more than a few things to him. However, Alita seems to be quite pissed about the sudden appearance of Captain Asswipe. "The hell do you want, asshat? If you haven't noticed, we're kinda in the middle of something here." She spits at him, which causes him to reel back in shock at the sudden foul insult thrown his way. He can understand her due to the Xtranceiver in his left ear, but I don't even know why he bothers. Someone who doesn't care for his own Pokemon shouldn't need to understand them, anyhow.

"You really should teach your Pokemon some manners, peasant!" His expression quickly turns sour as he tells me off, like he's my fucking mom or something. "You sure about that? The only display of bad manners I see here are yours, dude." I shoot back, which quickly causes his face to contort in rage. "Be quiet, you ill mannered brute!" He shouts, then quickly corrects his stance as he addresses me and my company with that condescending tone of voice again. "I've come here to retrieve something that was mine, until you stole it from me recently." He tells me, which causes me to raise an eyebrow in genuine confusion. "What? I hope you're not putting your money where your mouth is, cause you're not making any cents." I joke, which gets a giggle out of Chell, while Alita just groans in annoyance. "God damn it, Jay! This isn't the right time for jokes!" She quickly starts chewing me out, slapping me upside the head with her wing. "Come on, Ali! I find them quite punny." I wink at her as I joke around more, which causes her to sigh as she looks away. "Idiot…" She muses, while Chell laughs even harder. "Good one, Mister Jay!" She giggles, which in turn causes Katrina to smile at the reactions of the team. I don't blame her, though. Negative reactions to puns are the best kind of reaction, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, Jimmy the prick decides to cut our humorous scene short. "Are you even listening to me, peasant!? I've come to take something back from your undeserving hands!" Once again, I'm rather confused by his wording. "Last time I checked, I didn't take anything from you. And if it's your fame you're looking to take back, let me remind you that you had none to begin with." I tell him, to which Chell tries to stifle a chuckle, and Alita can't help but snicker a little herself. This makes Jimmy even angrier, as he stamps his foot on the ground a few times before he talks to me again. "I'm taking back something that you have with you, so you'd better give it up!" He growls in my face, to which I shrug. "Okay, then. What do you want?"

Apparently, Jimmy wasn't expecting this answer, because he starts to ramble halfway through his next sentence before what I told him begins to finally sink in. "You really should hand it back over, peasant, before I-wait, what?" He looks at me, his confusion plain to see as Chell has more or less the same reaction. "Seriously? You're just gonna give him what he wants!?" Alita exclaims, looking quite surprised at my decision. "Look, the sooner I deal with him, the sooner I get to take a nap back upstairs. I wanna get rid of him too, so let's just see what he wants." I reply, focusing my gaze back to the rich prick again. "Want my bottle of ketchup?" I ask him, quickly pulling out my condiment bottle. This causes him to narrow his eyes at me. "No, I want the-" He starts again, but I quickly cut him off again. "My coin?" I ask him, pulling a coin seemingly out of nowhere and flipping it. "No! Just let me-" He starts again, now looking quite agitated, but I cut him off again. "This Pokeball?" I ask, causing him to finally lose it as he yells at me. "The Snivy, you moron! The Snivy!" He screams, causing me to shrug. "I'm not the Snivy. I'm Jay." I joke, causing him to grit him teeth in anger and frustration as Chell giggles in mirth at the situation.

"But seriously, though. You really want her back?" I ask him, which causes him to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "She? What are you talking about, Jay?" He asks, causing me to sigh and roll my eyes at him. "I'm talking about your Snivy, dumbass." He wants her back but he doesn't even know it's a she. That just goes to show how little some people care about their own Pokemon. "Okay, then. But I think we should let her decide who she wants to be with." I tell him, looking at the Snivy that's now clutching onto my chest with her small hands. "Alright, Ness. Make your choice. Who do you want to be with?" I ask her, which causes Jimmy to laugh. "Hah! You're not even going to try and keep something as strong as her? It's amazing someone as lazy as you even managed to graduate! You're never going to win if you don't fight, moron!" He laughs, but my smile remains regardless. "Besides, it's obvious who she's going to choose, anyway." Jimmy cackles, looking expectantly at Nesia.

However, what Nesia says next quickly causes Jimmy to look at her in disbelief. "I choose Jay." She tells her former Trainer. "What!? I am your trainer, you ingrate! Get over here NOW!" He yells. "No. I have already chosen my master." She replies bluntly. Jimmy seethes in anger at her response, pulling out two of his Premiere Balls and throwing them on the ground, revealing two Fighting Type Pokemon. One of them is a Throh, while the other one is a Primape, both looking ready to fight as they stare us down. The crowd that's congratulating Yupia notices the sudden hostility, backing away in fear of the powerhouses that just got released. Meanwhile, Jimmy smirks wickedly as he evens the odds. "Now, you're going to hand her over to me, or else I'm gonna sic these two on you. And trust me, these two aren't like your pathetic ensemble of Pokemon. These are actual fighters that I obtained with quite the sum of money. And let me tell you, they've been worth every cent so far." So, now he's going to resort to violence again… Welp, it's not like I wasn't expecting this. "She's made her choice. If that what she wants, then I'll defend her." I tell Jimmy firmly, which gets some words of agreement from the team. "Yeah! If you wanna take her away, you're gonna have to go through us!" Alita adds, hovering in the air as she prepares to fight. "Yeah! We're not giving her to some big meanie like you!" Chell agrees, whipping out her scalchop even though she's not in the best state right now. "Agreed. We will defend her, no matter the hardship." Katrina crouches with her tail standing straight, ready to fight.

However, the conflict is quickly avoided due to the intervention of the referee. "Hey! If either side isn't willing to fight, then the one who started the fight may be held accountable for some serious legal repercussions if the authorities show up." Jimmy rolls his eyes in annoyance. "I don't care! This isn't your business, asshole!" He retorts, before I butt in with a warning. "One of the repercussions includes the loss of your rights as a Trainer." I tell him, which causes him to stop in his tracks, a look of annoyance crossing his face. Eventually, after a couple seconds of staring hatefully at me, he reluctantly withdraws his Pokemon. "Fine. But this isn't over, you hear me!? I will get even, peasant." He growls at me, before quickly leaving the arena. Once he leaves, I sigh in relief as my sister rushes over to my side. "That was quite close, Brother. Are you alright?" She asks me, to which I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired, is all. Let's heal up our teams and get some shut-eye, eh?" I tell her, to which she quickly agrees without complaint.

I quickly rush both Chell and Nesia off to the TRAM machines, Yupia not far behind with her Tepig's Pokeball. Meanwhile, I take another look at the two injured Pokemon in my arms, both looking quite miserable as the pain from their wounds are no doubt sinking in. "I'm sorry you two had to wait for so long to get healed. Don't worry, the pain'll be over soon." I tell them causing Chell to shake her head with a smile. "It's okay, Mister Jay. You did what you had to do to make sure Nesia didn't go back to that guy." She replies, to which Nesia nods in agreement. "Thanks for understanding, you two." I thank them as I quickly make my way into to the room with the healing machines. After explaining the situation to the Audino working there, I place Chell in one of the machines. Before I place Nesia into the second chamber, though, she leans in close to my ear. "Thank you for saving me from him, Master." She tells me. "Like I said before Ness, it's vine." I joke, allowing me to just see Nesia rolling her eyes at me before the chamber closes up, the bluish healing liquid filling the chambers and sending Nesia and Chell to sleep for now. "That should do it for now, sir. Just give your Pokemon one and a half hours and they should be healthy again." I quickly thank the Audino, who nods with a smile and continues to tend to the other chambers in the room.

"Alright then, team. Now that they're healing up, we should head on up to the room first. I don't know about you two, but I'm pretty beat from the fight we had with Yupia just now." I joke, getting another groan of exasperation from Alita. "God damn it, Jay! Stop it with the puns already!" She quickly smacks me upside the head again, causing me to rub the back of my head in mock pain while Katrina giggles at the little scene. "I must be honest with you, Jay. Being in your company is never boring." She tells me, to which I grin back at her. "That's nice to hear, Kat. But how can you be honest with me, when you're Katrina?" I take the joking even further, getting another bout of giggling from Katrina and another wing smack on the head from Alita. "Argh! Stop it, you idiot!" She yells at me, to which I hold my hands up in a defensive manner. "Alright, alright. Let's go upstairs, 'kay?" I ask, to which the two quickly follow me out of the room without objection. The last thing I happen to see before I leave the room is Nesia in her chamber, a small smile on her dreaming face.

"Whew, today was rough. We finally lost our first match, eh?" I sigh, walking out of the elevator as we head on over to our room to retire for the night. "Are you upset that you lost, Jay?" Katrina asks me, causing me to reply to her question with a shrug. "Nah, was kinda expecting that to happen. Just didn't expect that my sister would be the one to finally bring me down, ya know? She's may be a great sister, but she's not exactly the smartest." With casual conversation between the three of us now dulling down a bit, I decide to tackle the issue regarding Alita's recent depression.

"So Ali. I couldn't help but notice a really large change in your mood." I tell her, to which she gives me a confused look. "What? What do you mean?" She asks me, although her voice seems almost forced, like she's trying to hide something from me. So, she's still not willing to tell me, huh? Shrugging, I shake my head. "Eh, just a hunch. But remember, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'll be here for ya, 'kay?" I remind her, getting a small smile out of her. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, you idiot." She chuckles, her expression still looking rather troubled.

As we approach the entrance to our room, I reach into the pocket of my hoodie to pull out my keycard, but my hand once again comes up empty. Sighing, I turn my gaze to Katrina, who's looking away with a look of innocence that one wouldn't normally associate with a thief. "Hand it over, Kat." I sigh, to which she grins a little wider. "Whatever do you mean, Jay?" In response to her lies, I reach around behind her and grab her tail, getting a gasp from her as I retrieve the keycard from her scythe like tail end. "I'm pretty sure you know what I mean." I shoot back playfully as she pouts, her plan now exposed.

Opening the door to the room, I make a gesture of formality as I open the door for the two Pokemon. "Ladies' first." I wink and grin as Katrina is the first one through the door. "Such a gentleman." She giggles. "Such an idiot." Alita sighs, but she doesn't pass up on the gesture, quickly flying into the room and settling down on the bed to rest up for a bit. As Katrina makes her way into the room, I decide to get the grooming kit I bought earlier out of my backpack. As Katrina jumps up onto the couch, I decide to use the fur comb inside the kit to start brushing her coat. As soon as she notices the comb, she quickly looks wary of the foreign item. "What is that?" She asks, giving the comb a suspicious glance. "Well, it's a fur comb. It's designed to straighten out fur and remove any loose bits of fur on you." I explain, scooting closer to her. "Just relax and let me do my thing. It won't hurt that much, I promise." She nods in reply to my words, letting me gently run the comb along her soft coat. I start off by running along her head, making sure to take on moderate amounts of hair per stroke. Since she's not that open to the whole grooming idea for now, I should take it slow. I make sure to tend to as many small knots in her fur as possible, pulling gently on each area of resistance to loosen her strands up before using the hairs on the comb to brush them all into a flat and organized array.

Soon enough, I finish grooming her hair and move on to her body. She's relaxed herself at this point, no signs of tense muscles at all as I brush across her furry coat. I make long strokes that span her body, making sure to straighten out any knots that I find along the way. Katrina seems to be enjoying this treatment now, as she's now making occasional purring noises as I stroke along the contours of her body. "Mmm… This does feel quite nice, Jay." She sighs blissfully as I continue to comb her, causing me to chuckle as I move on to her legs. "Told ya it wouldn't hurt too much. Now, I'm almost done, so this should last only for a while longer. It doesn't take too long before I'm done combing her coat, as I finish loosening the final few tangled bits of fur that I found. Putting the comb away, I grab the remote on the table next to the couch and turn on the TV, flipping to a channel about cooking. Meanwhile, Katrina decides to rest her head into my lap. As she does so, it doesn't take long for my hand to unconsciously drift to Katrina's recently smoothened coat, petting her head and running my palm along her soft fur as I watch the show unfold.

This gets quite the positive reaction out of her, as she starts purring again, nuzzling me as I pet her. A small smile stretches out onto her face as she lets me pet her, her purring really soothing to my ears and making a wave of calm wash over me. I take out my ketchup bottle out of my hoodie and take a big gulp, savoring the taste of the red condiment on my taste buds. Katrina then takes this time to comment on my strange tastes. "I beg your pardon, but why do you prefer to consume ketchup, anyhow? From what I can gather, ketchup isn't exactly something that humans drink." She questions me, looking quite interested in the condiment within the bottle. Shrugging, I just push the bottle close to her lips. "Well, I just like the taste. You could try it, if ya want." I suggest, which prompts her to close her maw around the mouth of the bottle and allowing me to squirt some of the ketchup into her mouth.

As expected, this doesn't exactly get the best reaction out of her. "Mmph!?" She yelps, muffled due to the fact that her mouth is closed. Her eyes wide, she quickly swallows the ketchup in her mouth, before coughing uncontrollably a few times. "Wow. Does it really taste that bad?" I ask her, concerned for her as well as kind of sad that someone would hate ketchup. Come on, man! It's freaking ketchup! "It doesn't taste bad, per se, it's just that it tastes funny to have in large amounts." She sticks out her tongue, using her paws to try and wipe the taste off her mouth. "I honestly don't understand how you even stand taking such large mouthfuls of it, let alone do it regularly." She shakes her head, to which I shrug. "Meh, to each his own, eh?"

Alita takes this moment to fly off her comfortable spot on the bed and roost on the couch instead, joining us as we watch the chef on screen cook up something really delicious looking that involves chicken breast. "Hey, Jay? There's something I wanna talk to you about…" She mumbles, causing me to look her way. "Yeah, what would you like to talk about, Ali?" I ask her, to which she averts my gaze by looking to the side. "Well, it's about how I was acting earlier…" She tells me, looking quite unsure about how she should say what she has on her mind as of now. She's finally willing to talk to me about what's eating her, although she seems to be a little unsure about it. "I've been thinking about how I've been letting the team down, and I don't know what to do about it." She finally manages to say it, after a minute of awkward silence. I don't really understanding what she means, I raise an eyebrow in confusion. "What? Let the team down? The heck are you talking about?" I ask her, genuinely confused by her sudden pessimistic opinions of herself.

However, this causes her to start glaring at me, her eyes showing no shortage of burning anger. "Don't you get it!? I failed to help the others fight those Patrat, and that's how Chell got hurt! If I had fought the fight you had with your sister just now, we wouldn't have lost!" She starts yelling at me, her voice only amplifying in volume and intensity as she lets out how she feels. However, I can already see tears starting to form in her eyes. "It's bacuase of that that I feel…I feel…" She finally breaks down, crying softly as I see tears leak from her eyes and roll down her head. In response to this, I quickly pull her into a hug. "Don't cry, it's totally fine." I try and comfort her, to which she cries harder. "But it's not! I felt so useless for not helping, and I still do! I've already let my old flock down, and now I've even let you down, Jay!" She sobs, while I shush her gently, stroking her shaking form to get her to calm down.

"I get it now. But think about it. If you felt useless for not being able to help out in those fights, how do you think I would have felt when you got knocked out? I can't even do half of what you guys can do, and you pretty much got hurt because I was being stupid. I was being an idiot for putting you in those situations, and I always feel quite guilty about letting you fight, even though I look like I have no problem doing so." I tell her, to which she looks up at me with teary eyes. "But that's not the same, you idiot! You couldn't have done anything about it, but I could have!" She yells, while I shake my head and sigh. "And what's so different about that, huh? You couldn't have done anything sooner about the Patrat fight, because you simply didn't have the training necessary to be confident enough in yourself. You couldn't have helped me fight against my sister because Nesia and Chell volunteered to go, either." She's still looking at me, but she looks like she's starting to understand where I'm going with this. "See? You couldn't have done anything about those times, but think about all the other times you did help me with something. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to beat Cilan. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to beat those Patrat in the end."

"You really think that I haven't let you down?" She asks me. "Yeah, so don't think for a second that you have. You can't do everything on your own, and neither can any of us. That's why I asked all of you to join me on this crazy adventure of mine. I can't fight, but you can. When you get too tired or don't feel like fighting, the others can help fight in your place. You're not responsible for everything that goes wrong, and you certainly don't have to protect us all the time. You protect us, and we protect you as well. Don't ever forget that, 'kay?" I tell her, to which she finally produces a genuine smile as she hugs me with her wings. I hug her back in response, patting her down as she embraces me the best she can with her wings. "Thanks for talking me out of it, Jay. I guess…I guess letting others help you out isn't so bad after all." She laughs, while I chuckle along with her. Katrina, who's been silently listening in, gives a smile as well as she shares the moment with us.

"Sorry for being all emotional and forcing you to listen to me, Jay." Alita sighs after a while of listening to the TV with us. "Nah, it's fine. Just don't bottle these things up inside next time. These things can get out of hand, and friends like me can help you through that." I reply, before unconsciously letting out a yawn. "Man, I'm tired. Let's head to bed, shall we?" I ask the two Pokemon sitting next to me. "Yeah, let's hit the sack. I'm pretty beat." Alita replies, flying off the couch and roosting on the bed. "I concur. Let us get some rest for tomorrow, then." Katrina agrees, slinking off the couch and onto the bed. I feel real tired and all, but I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something important…

As my gaze subconsciously drifts to the clock on the wall, which reads about two hours after I got to the room, I suddenly remember what I forgot. "Shit! I forgot about Chell and Ness!" I shout, quickly grabbing my hoodie and running off to the TRAM area.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

[Jay]

I've never been much of an early riser, and I most likely never will be. I've always liked waking up in the morning on my own accord, to experience to warmth of the sun on my face as I pull back the curtains. I like my mornings like any good relationship, nice and slow paced. However, a certain Oshawott by the name of Chell doesn't really agree with my definition of a good morning, as I suddenly feel the furry weight of her jumping on my chest early in the morning. Hey, at least she shook me right out of the dream I was having…

"Jayyyy! Wake uuuup!" She tells me, jumping up and down on my ribcage in a largely successful effort to shake me out of my sleep-induced sluggishness. "Alright, alright, I'm up…" I drawl, still shaking the last vestiges of sleep from my tired eyes and out of my system. Looking at the clock hanging right where I can see it, I can see that it's only seven in the morning, about two hours earlier than when I would have woken up naturally. "Geez, kiddo. You sure like giving me wake up calls, huh…" I groan, this time being quite too early for my tastes. Granted, it's boring when you're the only one up, and she did get some sleep in the RAM beforehand. But it's still not right to shake someone out of catching winks, damn it!

"That's because you never wake up early, silly!" Chell giggles, practically pushing me further and further away from Dreamland with her cute voice. Grunting, I grab her with both hands and gently put her off to the side of the bed, before I stretch my limbs and finally pull off the warm covers. "But mom, I don't wanna get up…" I feign the high pitched voice of a kid trying to evade the waking hands of his mother, which gets a second bout of laughter from her. As I do so, I gently push her away with my hand up against the side of her face. Giggling, Chell resists the weak attempt to push her away, and pushes my hand back to where it came from. "Just get up, Mister Jay! The sun just came up, so stop sleeping and come on!" She lightly slaps my face with those small paws of hers, each furry smack hitting my cheek as I finally urge myself to sit upright, getting off the bed soon after. Walking over to the table, I quickly get the water in the kettle boiling as I fix myself up some of that instant coffee. Putting the powder into a cup, I then proceed to walk on over to Chell, get her off the bed and put her down onto the ground.

As I wait for the water to boil, I suddenly feel a tug on my leg. Looking down, I see none other than Chell, who looks like she wants something. "Yeah? What is it, kid?" I ask her. "Up! I wanna go up!" She quickly requests, causing me to adopt a look of thought. "I dunno kid, I kinda don't feel like it right now…" I trail off with a playful smile, causing her to counter any resistance I had with her puppy dog eyes. "Come on! Pleeease?" She draws out that syllable, making sure that I have enough time to see the concentrated cuteness that is the pleading Oshawott before me. As is the expected result of her mental onslaught, I cave almost immediately. "Alright, you win." Sighing in mock defeat as I feel all my already meager mental resistance fade away from this plane of existence, I quickly pick her up and place her on my shoulder.

As I reach for my now boiling water kettle however, I feel Chell poking my neck with her paw. "Hmm? What do you need now, kiddo?" I ask her, seeing her eyes almost shining with glee as she jumps up and down on my shoulder. "Higher, Mister Jay! I wanna go higher!" She pleads with me, causing me to retract my hand and use it to instead pick Chell off my shoulder and put her on top of my head. "There. Is that high enough for ya?" I ask her, but she quickly shoots down my hopes of being able to enjoy my morning coffee. "No, I wanna go higher!" She whines playfully, really wanting to experience new heights as I sigh. "Are ya sure?" I ask her, in the hope of being able to dissuade her from reaching a higher altitude. "Yes! Now help me, Mister Jay! Please?" he begs me once again, her cute voice simply too much for my weak heart to resist. It's not fair, damn it! Why are some people born with weapons of resistance elimination, while I'm unable to convince her to stop!? It isn't fair…

Taking Chell off of my head, I hold her up high, using my arms to lift her above my head. "Alright, fine. But I'm gonna have to lend you a hand and toss you upwards this time. I hope this isn't too much for you to hand-le, kiddo." I joke, causing her to laugh as she's suspended by my hands, her little form shaking with mirth in my grasp. "I think that's paw-sible for me to do!" She giggles, getting a chuckle out of me as she keeps the puns going. "I still can't believe you're doing this fur fun, kid. Now, up ya get!" I smirk, gently tossing her upwards. "Whee hee hee!" She giggles, a joyful expression on her face as she's tossed into the air. I then position my hands underneath her, catching the giggling Oshawott gently as she falls back down to Earth. "That was fun! Again, again!" She cheers gleefully, waving her little arms as she states her request. "Again? You're really giving me a workout here, kiddo." I chuckle, raising an eyebrow at her. "No I'm not! You're just too lazy!" She rebuts, dead set on making me throw her up into the air again.

"Okay, you asked for it! Going up!" I grunt, launching her even higher into the air this time. She almost touches the ceiling of the room before gravity takes hold of her, sending her falling back down. Once again, I catch her in my hands, putting her down onto the floor of the room this time. "That's all I can do for you right now, kid." I tell her, causing her to start pouting as she crosses her arms and puffs out her cheeks in a manner that makes her look so damn cute. "But it's fun…" She whines, pleading with me in an attempt to make me cave in, but I decide that the prospect of a nice cup of coffee is more appealing than messing with Chell right now. As such, I decide to take the appropriate countermeasures to her pleas. "But I want coffee…" I whine back, mimicking her voice in a rather poor imitation of her. This causes her to giggle as she pokes fun at me. "You sound so dumb, Mister Jay!" She laughs as I send a smirk her way, eager to have some fun of my own. Quickly using my hands, I scoop her off the floor and back onto the bed, where I pin her to the soft surface with a hand.

"You wanna know something else that's funny?" I ask her, my grin growing a tad bit evil as I stare her down. "What?" She asks, watching my other hand snake its way closer to her. She's still smiling, but she won't be for much longer. "My special attack." I answer her, as I begin my assault on her body. Unable to escape my grasp, she's rendered helpless and unable to retaliate as I move my other hand over and begin tickling her sides and stomach relentlessly. "Gyahahahaha! No, Pleahehehehease! Anything but thahahahahahat!" Her smile quickly splits wide open, her sentences devolving into bursts of laughter as my attack leaves her a writhing, giggling mess. She's laughing so hard that it seems she's actually struggling to breathe, a few tears leaking down the sides of her face as I continue ferociously attacking her sides. "If you want me to stop, you're gonna have to tell me." I taunt her, knowing all too well that talking in coherent sentences is going to be rather difficult given her current predicament. "Just stahahahahahp tickling mehehehehehehe!" She manages to get out, even though I was hoping she wouldn't be able to. Sighing, I quickly cease my attack on her ticklish areas, leaving her to lie there on the bed as she catches her breath. "Hah… Hah…" She pants, really worn out from the tickle assault, but still wearing a smile regardless.

Now that I've got some temporary peace of mind, I can get to making that sweet, sweet cup of life giving elixir. Licking my lips, I quickly pour some of the boiling water into the cup with coffee powder in it, quickly filling the cup to the brim and giving it a good mix with a teaspoon. After a few seconds of combining, I set the teaspoon aside and take a sip. Immediately, the bitter taste of hot coffee touches my tongue and slides down my throat. Gulping down the small taste of hot drink, I sigh as I feel it enter my stomach. "Ah, that's nice." I mutter to myself as I set the cup down onto the table and enter the bathroom to get my teeth cleaned and my face washed.

I don't take long with the brushing of my teeth, as I soon exit the bathroom and walk back over to the table in the middle of the main room. As soon as I locate my cup of coffee, I see Nesia already up and about on the table, looking at the cup of steaming liquid with a curious gaze. She's focused on the cup, so she doesn't seem to notice my appearance in the room with her yet. She leans closer over the rim of the cup and takes a sniff of the dark substance, quickly pulling her head back and making a face at the unfamiliar and strong smell of coffee. Sitting down, I make my presence known as I lightly tap her head with my index finger, slightly startling her as she turns around to see me. "Heya, Ness. Interested in the coffee, I see." I take a seat next to her, while her eyes widen in curiosity at the unfamiliar word.

"Coffee?" She asks, the word already sounding like how it's supposed to be said. Man, she learns fast. "Yup. It's the liquid in the cup." I tell her, taking a sip of the strong tasting stuff and gulping it down. Seeing her eyes still following the cup, I put the cup down next to her. "Wanna take a sip?" I ask her, to which she looks at me with uncertainty. "Yeah, go ahead. It didn't kill me, and it won't kill you, either." I assure her, causing her to move closer towards the cup of coffee. Before she can take a sip, however, she's interrupted by none other than our winged companion.

"Woah, woah, woah! Are you seriously gonna drink that?" Alita asks, quickly landing on the table next to Nesia and the cup of coffee. "Yes. Master let me." Nesia answers her quickly, her callous expression unchanging as she's addressed by the bird. Taking a quick sniff at the cup of drink, Alita quickly reels back in utter disgust as the familiar smell hits her nostrils. "Yup, that's the stuff alright. I should warn you that whatever Jay drinks usually doesn't taste good." She tells Nesia as she looks at her directly, dead serious. "I agree with Alita. Most of what Jay prefers to drink does taste rather strange." Katrina, who's also awake at this point, is sitting on the couch as she stares at Chell from a distance. "That's not true! Jay gave me this soda stuff that tasted really good!" Chell butts in, deciding to support my choice in drinks instead.

"Have you even tried this coffee stuff he drinks!? How he even stands the taste I have no idea." Alita huffs, causing Chell to fold her arms and glare at her in disbelief. "Mister Jay drinks ketchup, and it's great on my food!" She shoots back at Alita, who just decides to butt heads with the Oshawott again. "That soda he gave me didn't taste that good anyway!" Alita glares back at Chell, who just glares back. "You just kept it in your mouth for too long!" Chell strikes back, as the two arguing Pokemon begin growling at each other. As Katrina watches in amusement and Nesia looks at the two in confusion, I sigh. And to think these two were the ones who agreed to defend Nesia the other day… "If it's not supposed to be in your mouth, then why would you even drink it!?" Alita shouts at Chell, just before I break the two up to avoid literal and metaphorical bloodshed. "Okay you two, that's enough!" I hush them in a calm but firm tone as I tell them off. "But she-" They both begin, but I quickly cut them off again. "No buts! You two are part of the same team, like it or not, so could you try not to tear each other to pieces? Besides, fighting over what to drink is kinda dumb to begin with." I sigh, setting the two apart as they settle down. However, they are both still glaring at the other angrily. "Come on, you two. I don't think deciding on what you two like drinking is worth hating each other for, wouldn't you agree?" I tell them, causing both their gazes to soften as they continue to stare at each other. As they stare on and decide on what to do next, I take a sip of coffee.

Chell is the first to speak up. "I'm sorry about that, Ali." She apologizes to Alita, who shakes her head with a smile. "Yeah, I'm sorry too. Jay's right. Fighting over something like that is pretty dumb, huh?" She smirks wryly as Chell giggles, both sides looking quite embarrassed that they fought over such a small issue. However, they've forgiven each other, and that's what's important. As I soak in the moment, however, I hear some light coughing coming from the table. Looking down, I see Nesia coughing as tears leak from her eyes. As she does so, she's sticking out her tongue and flicking it around in the air. "Are you okay, Ness!?" Chell asks, concerned for her well being. From the rather large reaction of our little serpentine friend to the darker color on the edge of her mouth and her tongue, it's safe to say that she tried the coffee. It's also pretty obvious that she didn't like the taste of the drink at all, either. Quickly running to the kettle and getting a glass and some ice cubes, I quickly get some warm water going in the glass as some of the ice melts in the hot water.

Rushing back over to the still suffering snake, I set the glass of water down in front of her, which she gladly lifts up with her vines and takes a couple large gulps out of. Once she's done with the water, she quickly sets the glass down, eyeing the coffee cautiously. "That didn't taste nice at all, Master." She frowns, causing me to shrug. "To be fair, I said it wouldn't kill ya." I tell her, to which she just rolls her eyes. "Seriously, how do you even drink this stuff?" Alita asks, grimacing once she smells the scent of the drink in her nose again. "I told you, I got used to it. Besides, as humans get older, we experience a change in taste." I shrug, taking another sip of the dark liquid, feeling the still warm coffee slide down my throat. Looking at the ice cubes, I get an idea as I slip a couple into my cup, cooling my coffee down. "Besides, it's always ice to go through change every now and then." I joke, causing Alita to groan in exasperation and slap me over the head with her wing as Chell giggles. "God damn it, Jay! Do you always have to spit out a pun?" She sighs, while I smirk back at her. "Water-ver do you mean, Ali?" I chuckle, causing Chell to giggle even louder. "Good one, Mister Jay! You really shouldn't be so shell-shocked that he made a pun, Ali!" She laughs, while Katrina smiles and Nesia rolls her eyes. However, she has a small smile on her face as she watches us mess around.

Looking back over to the small grass snake, I smile at her as she looks at us. "Come on, Ness. You're a part of our crazy little family now." The smile never leaves her face, only widening as she looks at me, then back to the rest of the team. "I like it here." She replies, to which I grin at her. "Yeah, I like it here too." Taking a peek at the clock on the wall, I can see that it's about time for some breakfast. "Now, how about we head on down and get some grub?" I suggest, Chell quickly perking up at the mention of food. "Good idea, Mister Jay! I'm starving!" She cheers, clearly excited about the prospect of getting to chow down. "Sounds good to me. Let's go!" Alita nods quickly taking off and hovering in midair. "I agree. Let us be off." Katrina also seems to be on board with the idea, quickly getting off the couch with one swift and graceful motion. Nesia is about to join us, when her stomach decides to emphasize the importance of having some food by grumbling. Her cheeks quickly flush in embarrassment, while Chell and I break out into laughter. "Sounds like a certain someone is rather famished." Katrina giggles, while Alita snickers.

"Then let's go. I don't think Ness will be able to stomach the urge to feast much longer." I make another joke as I open the door to the room, causing Alita to growl and land on my shoulder, giving my ear a herd peck. "Ow! What's the matter, Ali? Can't take a joke?" I wince, rubbing my ear as Chell laughs. "Come on, Ali! Ness ate that one up just fine." She furthers the pun chain, causing Alita to yell in frustration and slap me over the head with her wing. "I swear to God, you idiots! Stop it with the puns!" She huffs as we leave the room, walking down the hallway towards the elevator. Meanwhile, Nesia just rolls her eyes on top of the smiling Katrina. Nesia quickly latches onto my shoulder and stands on it, looking at me with a guilty expression. "I'm sorry I couldn't win last night, Master." She tells me, to which I quickly nuzzle her with my cheek. "It's fine, Ness. You did what you could, didn't you? Besides, I'm the one who made that dumb call back there." I grin, to which she nods. "If you say so, Master." She replies, still looking guilty, but not as much as before. It's kinda weird that she's started calling me 'Master', though. Well, whatever makes her more comfortable around me… "Oh, and Kat? Don't take my wallet, please. I need it." I sternly tell her off, snatching my leather money holder off her tail as she pouts. "You could just let me get away with it, you know…" She frowns, causing me to smirk.

Once we reach the dining hall again, the team quickly splits up in search of food, save for Alita and Nesia, who both stick to me as we explore around the food tables. "I'm getting some bacon and eggs. What do you two wanna eat this time around?" I ask them, quickly using the tongs provided on the side of the tray to pick up some slices of bacon and some scrambled eggs. "I want some berries, so go get me some!" Alita commands. "Yes, Milady." I reply, causing her to smack me over the head. "Just shut up and get me some." She huffs, blushing slightly as she looks away. "Some salad, please." Nesia speaks up, to which I nod my head. "Okay, then. Vegetable salad it is." As I pick up the eggs, I see Nesia and Alita eyeing the cooked yellow mass with horror and disgust. "Relax, you two. These are chicken eggs." I tell them, to which Nesia tilts her head in confusion. "What's a chicken?" She asks, to which I explain on the way to the salad bar. "Well, a chicken is an animal. You know, the creatures that look like Pokemon but can't talk or use any elemental attacks. Chickens are birds like Alita here, except they can't fly and are brown and yellow in color." I tell them, to which Alita looks at the yellow slop with interest, but still with no small amount of distaste.

"But don't eggs have babies in 'em?" She looks at the eggs cautiously, seemingly disgusted by the fact that I was eating small, unhatched lives. Shaking my head, I point a finger at the scrambled egg pile that was on my plate. "Oh, this? These eggs didn't have babies in 'em. In fact, we make sure that eggs don't have baby chickens in them before they're cooked." I tell her, causing Nesia to just get more interested. "Then why would chickens even lay eggs?" She asks. "Well, only female, or girl chickens do this to get rid of extra materials in the food they eat. The eggshells are made of something, after all." I tell her, but this doesn't stop her from bombarding me with more questions about the way stuff works. Meanwhile, I pick up some salads at the salad bar, one mixed berry salad with extra Cheri berries, and another simple vegetable salad.

"Then do humans lay eggs to get rid of materials?" Nesia asks, to which I stop for a moment, my brain trying to process the hilariously silly notion of a human girl forcing an egg out of her vagina. I laugh soon after, my free hand covering my mouth as I try and fail miserably to hold in my chuckles. "What's so funny? Don't you guys lay eggs?" Alita asks, not really getting why I was laughing so hard. "That's kinda it, Ali. We humans don't lay eggs. Instead, human females hold their baby in their wombs until they're ready to be let out. So it's kind of like an egg." I answer, which causes Alita to look at me incredulously. Nesia however, looks at me with the same unquenchable thirst for knowledge as before. "What!? Why don't you humans lay eggs!? All Pokemon lay eggs!" She exclaims, sounding rather disbelieving of what I just said.

"I dunno. Maybe because of evolution or something? I don't study stuff like that, so I'm not too sure." I reply, looking to Nesia and seeing her about to ask another question. This time however, I quickly shush her with my finger over her mouth. "Woah there, Ness. Whatever questions you have about the world as we know it, you can search for it on the computer. There are things that I can't tell you the answer to, because I don't know everything. If you want, I'll give you some time with the computer later." I tell her, which finally gets her to stop asking me questions. She's really curious about this stuff, huh…

Making my way back to my table, I can see that Chell and Katrina are already digging in to their breakfast, the former munching on the food covering her plate like someone who had been on the verge of starving to death. As soon as they see the eggs on my plate, however, their faces quickly contort into disgust and horror as they look at me. "Woah, woah, woah! These aren't Pokemon eggs, you two." I quickly tell them, explaining the basics about chickens and their eggs. After they had calmed down with Alita and Nesia backing me up on the subject, I finally get to take a seat and eat up. However, I barely get to swallow my first bite of bacon before I'm interrupted by a rather familiar kid. "I found you, Jay!" Looking behind me, I can see the smiling face of Joey, the kid with the purloin we fought a while ago.

"Heya, Joey. What brings you here?" I wave to him, the little tyke grinning at me as he looks at me and the team, his purloin right by his side. "I saw your match yesterday. That was a really cool fight, mister, even though you lost!" In response to his comment, I shrug. "Meh, I'm not that sad about losing." Hearing my reply, his expression becomes one of confusion. "So you're not sad about losing the fight?" He asks, to which I nod. "Yup. I think that each loss helps to point out what I could have done better, and think of new ways to fight with my friends. So for me, losing can be just as great as winning."

"I don't really get it. Losing doesn't feel too great…" Joey replies, scratching his head in confusion. "You'll get it eventually, so no need to rush things. For now, just enjoy the time you're spending with your Pokemon." I tell him, which causes him to smile at me. "Okay, Mister!" He grins, before turning to his Purrloin. "Come on Purrloin, let's go!" He tells his Pokemon, who lets out a purr as it follows him out of the Pokemon Center. "Who was that, Master?" Nesia asks, confused as to why he had suddenly shown up. "He's someone I fought against a while back. He's a good kid, he just needs a shove in the right direction." I tell her, taking another bite out of my food. Breakfast goes on without much of a hitch from there, as we quickly finish up and get ready to leave. As I sling my backpack over my shoulder, I suddenly notice two people with the P symbol on their clothes rush out of the PokeCenter. From the looks of it, they're in quite the rush.

"What the…" I muse, which catches Chell's attention. "What is it, Mister Jay?" She asks, to which I point at the two oddly dressed people quickly leaving the area. "See those two? They're some of the Plasma guys that we saw some time ago." Alita also catches wind of those two, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Those two look a little too shady to me." She voices her opinion, to which I agree with a nod. "They're not an organization that's well known, either. Actually, I've never heard of them up until a couple days ago." I reply, causing Katrina to look at the two shady people as well. "Shall we pursue them?" She suggests. "Not a bad idea, Kat. Let's go." I tell the team, quickly exiting the Pokemon Center with the team close behind. I wonder what they're up to…


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

[Jay]

Quickly giving chase to the two thugs, we quickly follow them around the corner to see them enter a section of the forest that's a little secluded from the main area via a small path barely visible to the naked eye. We follow them in just after they turn the corner, making sure not to lose them in the foliage. The one in the back suddenly turns around to check for prying eyes, so I'm forced to seek cover by diving into a nearby bush. "Hide." I whisper to the team as I dive in, the small group of Pokemon quickly joining me in the safety of the leafy green plant.

As I peek out of the bush to take a look, I see Chell still out there and begin to panic. Shit, he's right there! She'll get caught if she doesn't react soon! Fortunately for us, Nesia pulls a fast one and quickly extends her vines to ensnare Chell, dragging her into the bushes with us. "Mmmph!?" Chell lets out a yelp, muffled by a vine over her mouth as she's quickly pulled out of sight and into the bushes with the rest of us. As Nesia releases Chell from the grip of her vines, I proceed to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. "It's just us. Stay quiet." I hiss in her ear, hoping against hope that the guy hadn't seen us.

"Huh, I swore I heard something over here…" I hear a voice outside the bush mutter to himself as footsteps close in on our position. Oh, crap, he's right in front of our bush! I can see the grey of his uniform just outside the bush! Fortunately, whatever gods exist turn the situation in our favor as thug number two interrupts the guy's search. "You're just paranoid, dumbass. Now hurry the hell up! The boss'll skin us alive if we don't find him that mist."

"But I'm pretty sure I heard…" Grunt number one starts to object, but he quickly changes his mind. "Yeah, you're right. I'm more afraid of him than anything else. Let's go. The Pokemon he wants the stuff from should be somewhere around here…" He agrees with Grunt Two, both just resuming their walk down the path. As I hear their footsteps fade into the background, I let go of Chell's mouth and sigh in relief. The team also shares my relief, as the sigh ends up being collective. "Why are we hiding?" Nesia asks, not too familiar with these folk as we are. "Well, these Team Plasma guys say that they're doing this for the good of Pokemon, but I have my doubts about that." I tell her, which gets an understanding nod from her. "Besides, wouldn't they be a well known organization if they were doing stuff for Pokemon freedom? I've never even heard of a Team Plasma before." I add, stepping out of the bush and crouching low to follow them into the forest and avoid detection, the team quickly following.

It doesn't take long for us to tail them to where they were intending to go, as the narrow path, although winding, quickly widens out into what appears to be the entrance to some sort of warehouse. From the rather dilapidated look of the building, it seems to have been abandoned for at least a while. The team doesn't seem to have really seen a building of this kind before, and are observing the structure with interest. "What is this place, Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, looking at the cracked walls of the structure, overgrown with vines and creepers. "Well, it's the kind of place we use to put things in It's a warehouse." I explain, taking a few cautious steps towards the building. "Why would a structure like this be constructed in the middle of the woods? It is rather odd that humans would choose this kind of location." Katrina notes, getting a hum of agreement from me. "Yeah. Why would anyone build this out here? Doesn't make much sense to me."

Meanwhile, Alita just rolls her eyes. "And how is figuring out why this thing was built important?" She deadpans, staring at me with a bored expression. In response to her question, I shrug. "I dunno. But the look of this place makes me pretty sure humans haven't messed with it for a while, so this might as well be where those two Plasma guys went. I say we head inside and take a closer look." I suggest, walking up to the crumbling ruins. When we reach to large doors, we can see that they've already been pushed open. Taking a closer look at the surface of the doors that are covered in moss, I can see some indents on the green surface, in the shape of hands. "Welp, it seems that our cronies went inside. Come on, team." I conclude, motioning for my Pokemon to follow me into the abandoned warehouse.

Once inside, we can see that the warehouse has indeed been unused for some time. The ceiling of the place is missing, most likely having been collapsed a while ago. As such, the floor is now littered with pieces of glass, supposedly being the pieces of what was once the roof of the building. The walls still remain mostly intact, although it is obvious that some well placed damage to said cracked walls will cause them to fall as well. However, what really catches our attention is the small, floating pink Pokemon in the center of the room. Its beady eyes and its small, roundish frame make it the cutest thing I've laid eyes on thus far. "Whoa! What's a Munna doing here?" Alita asks, unsure of why such a rare Pokemon would make an appearance in a place like this. To be honest, this is the first time I've laid eyes on a Munna. Due to the constant pollution of their natural habitats, they've been increasingly hard to find. As such, finding one nowadays is quite the rarity to any Trainer who's worth their Badges. It seems relatively calm, looking at us lazily as it floats in the air.

However, before we can approach the Munna, the two grunts from earlier appear in front of us, blocking our path to the small Psychic Type. In response, we hide quickly, making sure to avoid all the glass as not to make noise. "We found it, dude!" One of them yells in triumph, causing the other one to groan. "I can see it, you dumbass. Let's just get the Dream Mist from it and go." They then turn to the now frightened Munna, advancing slowly on it. "Just hold still, you. It'll only hurt for a second…" One of them smirks evily, closing in on the helpless Pokemon. That's when Chell accidentally steps on a shard of broken glass, the brittle material letting out a crack under her weight. The grunts are alerted to the sudden noise, looking really suspicious of the sound as they halt their advance on the Munna and turn around. "What the…" One of the grunts muses, looking just as confused as his friend.

Meanwhile, I sigh from my hiding place. Well, so much for being subtle. I step out into view, pointing a finger at them. "Get away from that Pokemon!" I warn them, stepping closer as I do so. "See!? I told you we were being followed!" One of the grunts points at me in triumph, annoying the other Team Plasma member. "Shut it, you moron. Let's just do what we came here to do and get outta here." He then turns his attention to us, his expression one of hostility. "Hey, kid! If you know what's good for ya, you'll leave right now!" He growls, taking out a Pokeball and preparing to throw it, his buddy doing the same. "I'm no psychologist, but I'm pretty sure that Pokemon isn't too willing to let you take stuff from it." I point out, causing the grunts to throw out their Pokeballs in response, revealing their Pokemon to be a Patrat and a Purrloin. "Listen, kid. We have you outnumbered. It's the two of them versus one of you. If you value your life, I suggest you leave now." The more collected of the two speaks up, wearing a serious look.

This causes me to smirk, realizing that the rest of my group is still hiding behind the other walls of the warehouse. As such, they haven't seen the rest of my team yet. "That's what you think. Team! I need some help!" I call out to them, Katrina quickly running up to my position and dropping off Chell and Nesia, while Alita flies into view, all of them taking their battle stances and preparing for a fight. As they appear, the two henchmen quickly realize that they're outnumbered, so they quickly take a step back. Smirking now, I take a step forward. "Now, you two could back off like I wanted you to, or we could throw down right now." I suggest, letting them make the choice. However, my edge is quickly lost, as the grunts each pull out a handgun. I freeze right then and there, the rest of the team confused as to why the opposing humans were pointing small metallic sticks at them.

This isn't good. If we make a move, they'll shoot. My team is definitely not fast enough to dodge a speeding bullet, so I'm out of options for this one. Seeing my shock, the grunts smirk back at me. "You were saying? Now, be a good little kid and scram." One of them speaks up, his gun trained on my Pokemon. "Gimme the order, Jay, and I'll-" Alita starts, but I quickly cut her off. "No, don't! Those are guns they're holding, they'll kill you before you can even blink!" I warn her, stopping her advance and letting the raw power of what guns can do sink in. "What do we do, Mister Jay?" Chell quickly asks me, looking quite scared for her own life as she clings to my pant leg. "This is quite the predicament we're stuck in right now." Katrina mutters to me as I calm myself. "Don't worry about it, girls. I'm not letting any of you get hurt. The second you hear me yell, you need to get outta here, 'kay?" I tell them, which gets Chell to look at me with a face of worry. "But what about you?" She tugs on my pant leg harder, unwilling to let go. "I'll be fine, Chell. Now get ready." I reply, readying myself for the worst as I face the two thugs.

However, whether by some miracle or an act of fate, it doesn't come to that. The attention of everybody in the room is suddenly diverted to the sudden intrusion from above, as we all see someone falling from one of the walls of the warehouse. "Oh shi-" The guy's cut off mid scream due to his rather unceremonious fall into some crates nearby. For a moment, I thought he had actually died, but I'm left speechless as he just gets up and dusts himself off. Upon closer inspection, he's looking a little pudgy, with a black backpack slung over his shoulders, as well as a belt of Pokeballs around his waist. He's dressed in simple attire, with an orange shirt and green pants. "Whew, that was a close one!" He grins, immediately shaking off the fact that he had just fallen at least three meters. Looking towards me, he waves his hand. "Oh hey! I'm Jack, what's your name?"

"What the…" In response to his strange method of entry, that's all I manage to say. However, the grunts quickly shake off their shock, pointing their guns at the new kid instead. "Hey! I don't know what the fuck you're doing here, but you should leave before things get messy." He threatens the kid, directing the barrel of the gun directly at him. Upon seeing this situation, Jack's mood darkens, his smile fading quickly. "So that's what this is. Alright, then." He reaches for a Pokeball on his belt, pressing the button on the device to enlarge it. "Go, Mimikyu!" He shouts, tossing the ball out in front of him to reveal his Pokemon. I wasn't sure if I had heard him wrong or not when he said the name of his choice. I had never even heard of a Mimikyu before, so I was completely in the dark on this one.

The team and I look on, waiting for the light to dissipate and reveal Jack's Pokemon. The light soon fades, a small Pokemon that looked like a straight up rip off of Pikachu in its place. It had two eyes, both disproportionate to each other and seemingly been poorly added onto the yellow surface, crudely scribbled on with marker. Its mouth was a squiggly line, and its head was slightly leaning to the side. Upon seeing the small Pokemon, the grunts immediately burst out laughing. "Seriously!? That's what a Minikyu is!? That thing looks so fucking stupid!" They guffaw, making the creature seem sad as its head starts to hang even lower that it already had been.

Jack wouldn't have any of that. "It's alright, Mimikyu. These are the guys that I need you to beat." He whispers to it, to which its head immediately snaps upright in attention, as it is surrounded in a dark aura. However, the Team Plasma grunts have other ideas. "Nope." One of them quickly reacts to the Pokemon preparing to strike, shooting it in the head. The bullet leaves the muzzle of the gun with a bang, making a large hole into its head, causing its head to bend to the side at an awkward angle. As Chell gasps in horror at the blow, Jack's reaction is rather large, but not for the reason I'd expect. "NO! That costume took me forever to fix!" Jack sobs, while Alita gets even angrier due to the death of the Pokemon. "You sick bastards! You killed it!" She screams, about to charge the two in an act of vengeance, but I stop her by holding onto her wings and stopping her mid flight. "Let me go, you idiot! Let me at 'em! I'll kill 'em for what they did!" She roars, seemingly ready to kill those two grunts.

"Wait a sec, Ali. Take a look." I tell her, causing her to look back at the Mimikyu. What she sees surprises her, as she sees nothing of the 'dead' Pokemon. "What? Where'd it go!?" The grunts start to panic, looking around for the missing Pokemon as Jack breaks out into a wide grin again. "Oh, now you're in for it." He smirks, pointing at the two Pokemon that the grunts had sent out. "Now, Mimikyu! Cut them up with Shadow Claw, and follow up with Play Rough!" He commands, the small Pokemon appearing out of nowhere and slashing up the guns of the grunts and the two Pokemon with a claw made of dark energy, protruding from its tail. "What the hell!?" One of the grunts yell out, seeing his gun get sliced into ribbons right before his eyes. Now with the four assailants weakened and defenseless, the Mimikyu then proceeds to smash into them from all directions, dealing more and more damage with each corresponding collision. The team and I can only look on, stunned with awe by the sheer amount of agility and power being displayed by the small Pokemon. The two Pokemon are quick to faint, the attacks proving to be too much for them to handle.

With their partners down for the count and their guns destroyed, the two grunts can only watch as the small Pokemon appears from the ground and slowly floating towards them, its head wound leaking no blood as it looks at them with the intention to kill. "No, please! Don't kill us!" One of the grunts starts to beg for his life, pleading with the still angry Mimikyu as it descends upon them, Shadow Claw at the ready. "Call it off, call it off!" The other one whimpers like a dog, begging for mercy. "Alright, fine. Geez, you guys are boring." Jack yawns, recalling the Mimikyu into its Pokeball as he stares the two shivering grunts down. "Now leave, and don't come back!" He shouts, the two grunts immediately scrambling to their feet and running out of the warehouse.

After they leave, Jack quickly sends Mimikyu back out, pulling a sewing kit out of his backpack. "Alright girl, they're gone. Now, let's patch up your costume, shall we?" He soothes the Pokemon, which lets out a small coo and lets him get to work, quickly sewing up the hole in her costume. Meanwhile, I look over to the still trembling Munna. Walking over to it, I pet it on the head, getting it to stop shaking as it looks up at me. "It's okay. The bad men are gone now." I soothe, which gets a smile out of it. "Thank you for saving me, mister!" It thanks me, looking quite happy now as it floats there. "Stay here, please! I need to go get Miss Fennel!" It chirps before using Teleport to get to where this Fennel was. With that done, Jack turns to us. "Now, then. What's your name? You already know mine, but I don't know yours." He asks, reaching a hand out to shake, causing me to grin myself as I reach out a hand of my own. "I'm Jay, and it's nice to meet ya." As Jack grips onto my hand, the whoopee cushion hidden inside my hand lets out a farting noise, causing Jack to look confused while I chuckle and Chell giggles. "Heh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It's always funny." I grin, while Alita slaps me over the head with her wing. Jack looks confused for a second, before what I just did sinks in and he shares a laugh with the rest of us.

"Do you always have to do that, you idiot!?" She groans at me, to which I shrug. "Maybe not, but it's still funny." I grin at her, which causes her to look the other way and huff. "No, it's not! It's stupid!" She yells, while Nesia rolls her eyes. Smiling, Katrina moves up to greet the Mimikyu. "Hello, there. I am Katrina, a Liepard. Thank you for saving us from those men." She thanks the small creature, who shies away from her instead of acknowledging the compliment. "T-thank you…" The Mimikyu whispers, hiding behind Jack as she says so. "I'm sorry about that, man. Mimi's real shy around strangers, whether good or bad." Jack apologizes, to which I shake my head. "Nah, its fine. Can't blame anyone for being nervous about meeting and greeting." I assure him,, getting him to feel more relaxed around me, as his smile grows wider.

"Thanks for understanding, dude. Say, who were those jokers, anyway?" He asks, to which I shrug. "Dunno. They call themselves Team Plasma, but I've never heard of them." After I get that cleared up, I focus my attention on Mimi, the small Mimikyu still hiding behind Jack's leg, but slowly getting used to the outside company as she reaches out for Chell's eager paw. When she shakes it with her tail, Chell smiles giddily at her, getting Mimikyu to come closer to her. "So, that's a Mimikyu, huh? I didn't even know a Pokemon like that existed." I tell Jack, who nods his head in understanding. Meanwhile, Mimikyu quickly jumps onto Katrina's head, the feline cheekily meowing loud enough to scare the Ghost Type off with an 'eep', which Katrina gets a laugh out of. "Mimikyu and I are from the Alola region, so we haven't really seen much of the Pokemon around here, either. We just travel as much as possible, trying to see new things and meet new people." He grins, causing me to smirk as I hear him out. "Sounds a lot like me and my sister, bud. We're seeing the sights right now, but we're trying to win the Pokemon League." I tell him part of my story, which causes his expression to light up. "Really, man!? Same here! After I finished my Trials, I just had to compete!" He smirks, his expression getting challenging.

"Is that so? How long have you been traveling around here, Jack?" I ask him, to which he smiles and rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "I only hit the shores of Unova today, in fact. I don't even have a map of the place!" He announces, which causes me to sigh and facepalm. The guy may be nice, but he's kind of a dumbass. I mean, who the fuck runs around an entirely new area without a map, much less an entire fucking Region? Guess I gotta help this guy out, huh… "You have a Pokedex?" I ask him, to which he nods. "Heck yeah, I do!" He rummages around in his backpack, until he finds himself a red styled Pokedex like mine, except for the fact that it was floating, had two protrusions like Pikachu tails and it had a smiling Rotom Face on it. "Greetings, Jay. I am Jack's Rotom-dex, a Rotom inside a Pokedex. The module within this device lets me speak to humans." He introduces himself, to which Chell takes notice of. "Wow, that's cool!" She marvels over the device, while Nesia stares on with the utmost curiosity. "I have to admit, that's pretty neat." Alita comments, looking quite impressed herself.

While the team marvels over the Pokedex, I pull out a cable. "Here. This is a linking cable that allows the two Pokedexes to download and share data with each other. Link this up to your Rotomdex and I'll send you a copy of my Unova map." I tell him, Jack quickly accepting the offer. "Woah, really!? Thanks!" He cries with glee, quickly linking up the cables and downloading the map of Unova into Rotomdex. "Download complete." Rotom chimes not even a few seconds later. "Man, that was fast. Does Rotom help with the downloading process?" I ask, Jack quickly nodding in response to my question. "Yeah, he does! He also makes sure to keep me out of harm's way. Besides, he can even translate Pokespeech for me!" He boasts, causing me to stare in amazement at the Rotomdex. "I oughta get going soon, dude! The Striaton Gym's right over there, and I wanna challenge it! See ya!" Jack suddenly pipes up. "Come on, Mimikyu! Let's go!" He calls to his Pokemon, who quickly floats after him as he leaves, running off and waving to me as he exits the warehouse. Waving back until he leaves out the door, I raise an eyebrow as he juts runs off. Guess he didn't notice the Munna back there, huh…

"Shouldn't we get outta here, too?" Alita asks me, to which I shake my head. "Nope, not yet." This is when Nesia explains the situation for me. "We still need to wait for that Munna to come back." She explains as we hear the telltale sound of a teleportation, indicating the Munna's return. I turn around to see a young woman who's got a lab coat and glasses on, along with the Munna from before as well as a larger Pokemon with a purple upper head and a pink lower body, with some swirls of pink gas drifting from a pore in its head. A Musharna. "There! That's the nice man that saved me!" The Munna informs the woman, who gives us a thankful smile. "Hello, young man! I'd like to thank you for saving this young Pokemon here." She walks up to me and bows, causing me to shake my head. "I tried to, but Jack did. He left because he was eager to fight the Gym around here." I reply, to which she nods. "I see. I am Doctor Fennel, and I'm currently researching the effects of Dream Mist."

"The name's Jay. Nice to meet ya." I introduce myself back and hold out a hand to shake, which she grabs with her own. "So, these Team Plasma guys wanted some Dream Mist from this Munna. What do you think they want with it?" I ask, to which Fennel pulls out a small sealed vial with some strange light pink mist inside, a different color to Musharna's pink gas. "This is the refined Dream Mist that I've managed to create. It allows whoever that inhales it to enter the dreams of others for a limited time. However, it seems that this form of this mist works differently on Pokemon. It actually allows them to learn Egg Moves." Egg Moves are moves that parent Pokemon can pass down to their offspring, allowing the kid Pokemon to learn moves that they couldn't learn normally.

"Now I see. Team Plasma wanted to use the mist to empower their Pokemon." I realize, getting a nod from Fennel. "That's most likely it. The other thing about the modified Dream Mist is that it is regenerative, able to turn the air around it into the same Mist as itself." She explains. So if they had gotten the mist, they could've used it as often as they'd wanted. "But why would they want the Dream Mist, anyway? I saw them explain their goals, and they said they wanted to free all Pokemon." I tell Fennel, the professor's brow furrowing in confusion as well. "It seems that their supposed goal isn't their true motive." She concludes while I let out a hum of agreement, not really liking what this Team Plasma are up to. "This isn't good, huh?"I ask Fennel, to which she nods. "Indeed it isn't. However, I still need to gather more data on the Mist." She tells me, handing me the same vial I saw before. "Wait, so you're giving me this?" I ask her, surprised that she'd actually entrust something this important to me. "Yes, I am. It can attach itself to your Pokedex, so you can sift out small portions of the gas whenever you'd like from this button here. My contact is embedded in the vial, so you can call me whenever you wish." She explains to me as she attaches the vial to my Pokedex with a click, pointing to a button on the side of the vial.

"I need to figure out the other properties of the Mist, but I can't really travel and let Team Plasma find me. As such, I need your help to gather more data." She begs me, to which I nod. "I'll help out, don't worry about it." I nod, which gets a smile out of her. "Thank you, Jay. Now, we must leave this place quickly. If they could track Munna, they could find Musharna even easier." As she says so, Musharna's eyes glow a bright blue, indicating the charging of Psychic energy. "Farewell Jay, and good luck." She waves goodbye as Musharna teleports them away, leaving me and the team to leave the warehouse ourselves.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

[Jay]

"That guy was really weird, huh?" Alita muses, flying next to me as we leave the warehouse behind and step back into the familiar confines of Striaton City. "He was energetic, that's for sure." I reply, shrugging as Chell give me a wide grin. "I liked that guy! He was so much fun to be around!" She pipes up, causing me to grin back at her. "So I'm not fun to hang around?" I dramatically gasp, holding a hand to my chest and getting a giggle out of her. "Water-ver do you mean? You're fun too, Mister Jay!" She smiles in her usual cute manner, causing me to grin back and my heart to flutter due to her cuteness. Geez, she cannot be this cute… "Thanks, kiddo. I appreciate your compliment furry much." I grin back, causing Alita to groan in exasperation as she flies a little higher into the air to try and escape our puns. "Stop it, you idiots!"

Ignoring Alita for now, I notice Nesia blankly staring off into space. It's very likely that she's thinking of something, so I decide to interrupt her thoughts for now. "Hey Ness, something on your mind?" I ask her, causing her to snap out of it and look my way. "That Pokemon was interesting, Master." She replies, getting a hum of agreement from me. "Agreed. That Mimikyu was quite the interesting Pokemon." Katrina agrees with Nesia as well, causing me to give the notion some thought. It doesn't really take me long to figure something out, though, as the answer was quite obvious. "Tell ya what, Ness. You can use the computer later, see if you can't find any info on Mimikyu." I tell her, which causes her eyes to light up hopefully. "But don't you use it, Master? To let someone like me use it..." She argues, to which I shake my head. "Yeah. It's not like I have much to do with it at night, anyhow. I got my phone for that. We're both equal here, ya know." I reply, causing her to smile at me in response. The damn thing may be a bitch to charge, but I made a Snivy happier. I'd say that's a win.

"Anyways, team. We still got a lot of the day to go, so I think we should stock up for the road and move on. Route 3 is a lot longer than Route 2, so I suspect we'll be spending one or two days extra in there." I tell them, pointing to the nearby PokeMart and gesturing for them to follow. "Sounds good, Mister Jay!" Chell nods and gives me a smile, quickly tailing behind. Training seems to be the order of the day, since we'll be walking around in forest for a while. I've gotta make sure the team gets tougher, or else the rest of the League'll probably end up chewing them up and spitting them out like used gum.

Soon after we get what we need from the PokeMart, we quickly turn our attention to the grassy areas of Route 3 to continue our travels. Upon crossing the threshold between Striaton City and Route 3, we immediately see some rather large natural areas to look around in, with a few paths to choose from. Looking at the Pokedex map for some information, I see that all three paths hold some promise for exploration. And since we're not exactly pressed for time, I might as well ask the team where they feel like going. "So girls, where do you wanna go? All three paths look the same to me, so I'd like to know where you would like to explore." I bring up the idea, to which Alita just observes the crossroads with a look of boredom.

"Meh, it doesn't matter to me. Your choice is as good as mine." Even though she lacks the anatomy necessary, she still somehow manages to convey a shrug. How the hell she just did that I will never know. "I'm fine with what you choose, Mister Jay!" Chell tells me, getting Nesia to nod in agreement. "As they have said, I have no qualms with where you decide to go, Jay." Katrina also forfeits her choice, which leaves the decision making to me. "Okay, then. I think we should go…that way." I finally make up my mind, pointing to the road to the right of us. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Alita declares, flapping her wings and flying straight into the woods. "Hey, wait for us!" Chell laughs, running into the woods after our eager avian friend. "I do believe we should catch up with them, do we not?" Katrina suggests, looking my way with a smile as she sprints after the rest of the team with Nesia on her back, causing me to sigh as I run along after them. As I slowly gain on Katrina, I break out into a wide grin and ignore the significant drop in temperature. At least team morale isn't low…

Shortly after we catch up with each other, we end up walking side by side as we continue our trek through the woods. As such, I enter my thinking state again. "I still can't believe Doctor Fennel gave me some of her research. Sure, I saved her Munna, but to give me this?" I ask no one on particular, getting the attention of Chell. "What are you going to do with it, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, to which I shrug. "Dunno. Maybe I'll use it later tonight, unless you really don't want me accessing your dreams." I tell her, getting a look of interest from Nesia. "Can Pokemon use it to see human dreams, Master?" She asks. "Well, most likely, but you should tell me if you wanna try it on me." I tell her, to which she nods in understanding. "But from what Fennel told me, I can use this stuff to help you girls learn some new attacks." I tell them, which gains Alita's attention. "So this stuff can help us learn some new tricks? Awesome!" She pipes up, looking at the small tube with interest.

"I agree with that, Ali. Some new moves for you to use could really surprise whoever we're fighting." I tell her, voicing my agreement as she sends a smirk my way. "No duh! It would make us so much stronger!" She exclaims, getting excited by the prospect of being able to pick up some more tricks to use in fights. In response to her enthusiasm, I chuckle. "Someone's eager to kick some ass." I comment, to which Katrina nods in agreement. "With an attitude such as hers, she may surpass the rest of us." She notes, to which Chell objects to by tugging on my leg. "I'll be strong too, Mister Jay! I promise I'll train harder to win, just you wait!" She looks over to her avian friend with a challenging smirk, causing Alita to smirk back at the Oshawott. "You're on, Chell!" She taunts back as I smile at the both of them. "Just don't train too hard, okay you two? Don't need you dying of exhaustion before we actually do get to fight anything." I lightly warn them, to which Katrina joins in with a smile of her own. "Those two are quite enthusiastic about battling, are they not?" She leans in closer to me as she says so, causing me to just barely catch the playful glint in her eyes as we walk along the bath.

"Yep, they sure are. Oh, and Kat? Don't think I didn't see you trying to take my wallet again." I smirk at her, to which her tail snakes its way back out of my pocket as she pouts. "You enjoy ruining my fun very much, don't you?" She daintily huffs as I look at her in an amused manner, her pout looking to be quite cute. "Nah, I just notice things." I reply, reaching down to pet her. "What are you doing?" She asks me playfully, smiling as she feels me tickle behind her ears. "Having fun. Trying to cheer you up. Why'd you ask?" I grin cheekily as I continue to tickle the large feline, causing her to attempt to swipe away my hand with her paw. "You are so annoying, good sir! I must ask you to cease your assault at once!" She giggles, reaching up and pushing my hand away from her head. "But you're too soft and pretty. I cannot resist!" I quickly exaggerate my voice, making Katrina blush slightly as she continues to giggle. "Oh, stop it, Jay. I am positive that I am not as pretty as you say." She looks away, her smile still remaining on her features as she tries to hide her blush. "Nonsense, Katrina! You simply don't understand!" I gasp, while Nesia looks at our banter with a smile. Meanwhile, Alita seems to be ignoring us as she looks away.

"You're so funny, Mister Jay!" Chell giggles at me, to which I smile and scoop her off the ground and put her in my arms. "And you're cute, Chell. Boop!" I chuckle at the little ball of giggling fluff in my grasp, poking her on the nose as she giggles more. "Stop it, Mister Jay! That tickles!" She squirms in my arms as I grin slyly at her, getting a fun idea. "See, you're so cute when you laugh like that! So cute and ticklish! Bzzt!" I mimic the sound of an electric shock as I poke her in her soft and sensitive side, causing her to laugh even harder as she feebly tries to defend herself from my prying fingers. However, she can't really do much when she's stuck in my arms, so all she can do is giggle and continue to squirm as I quite literally poke fun at her. "No, Mister Jay! Stop it!" She manages to say between her fits of giggling. "Nope. Bzzt! You're not-Bzzt!-escaping this-Bzzt!-time, kiddo. Bzzt!" I grin as I quickly cease my tickling leaving her a panting, smiling mess. "Sorry, kiddo. I just needed to hear your cute laugh." I smile at her, causing her cheeks to gain a slightly red coloration.

"I'm happy you think so, Mister Jay." She tells me back, giving me another of her cute, genuine smiles. Damn it, Chell's so freaking cute… "Ugh, will you cut it out? Some people are trying to do stuff over here." Alita groans, looking away from the scene of us having fun with a huff. I find her excuse rather unbelievable, however. "What are you doing then, Ali?" I ask her, causing the bird to quickly blurt out her answer. "I-I'm looking around for, uh… For things to fight! Yeah, that's right, you idiot!" She fumes with anger, however her stuttering proves to me that what she just said didn't have much truth to it at all. "I'm pretty sure that's not it, Ali." If that's not the case, then why is she putting a damper on our fun? Wait a sec…We're all having fun, she's not included…That's it! "You aren't jealous that you're not closer to us, are you Ali?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow as she quickly defends herself. "No! Why would I be jealous of the others, just because you touched them with your warm hands!?" She blurts out, sounding quite angry that I had even mentioned that to her. However, her facial expression says otherwise. Not only is she looking a little bothered, but her eyes are quickly darting away from me, her gaze avoiding my own.

Sighing, I gently pluck her out of the air and cradle her gently in my arms. "H-hey! The hell do you think you're doing!?" She growls, but she doesn't resist my attempt to close the gap between our bodies. However, she does lightly slap my face with her wings. "I was flying up there, Jay!" She protests, causing me to look at her with a fake pained expression. "So you don't want my attention, then?" I look at her, causing her to start stuttering again as she looks away. "W-well, I didn't…say that…" She mutters, her voice getting softer and softer as she finishes what she wanted to say. It could have barely been heard, but I heard it nevertheless. I respond to her inner conflict by stroking her wings and her back, causing her to gasp upon feeling the warmth of my hand as she rests in my embrace. "Ya know, you could have just flown off when I put you in my arm, Ali. Why didn't you?" I ask her with a smile, even though I knew precisely why she didn't. She responds in her own way, by huffing and looking away. "You're such an idiot…" She blushes, her voice no longer carrying any of the anger from before. "I know, but I'm your idiot Ali. I'll always be here for ya, no matter what you say." I grin, causing her to look my way again. "You'd better mean it, Jay, or else!" She looks at me, dead serious. "I mean it." I tell her, stroking her nice and gently.

She relaxes as her expression softens, staring at me as I continue to stroke her feathers. "This doesn't feel all that bad…" She sighs in content, causing me to chuckle as I spy Nesia shivering due to the somewhat cooler temperature in the forest. "You cold, Ness? Come on, you can join Ali and share my warmth if you want." I reassure her, letting her wrap her vines around my head to pull her small body into my arms, the Snivy relaxing into my chest and soaking up my warmth as I shiver a little from her cold body. "Mmm, this feels nice, Master..." She sighs in content, allowing me some time to admire just how cute she looks like this, her head snuggling cutely into my chest with a small smile adorning her face. I swear, my weak heart can't hold and process this much cute… As such, I begin to alternate my other free hand, stroking down Alita's back one minute and stroking along Nesia's scaly body the next. For a moment, all is calm.

"Hey, you! I wanna battle!" I suddenly cock my head in the direction of the voice to see a little kid, probably in preschool, hold out his Pokeball at me while smirking in a challenging way. Sighing in annoyance as I stand to face the little challenger, I stand my ground as both sides prepare to throw down. "You'd better watch out, Mister!" He declares, looking quite confident in his own skills as he releases his Munna from its capsule, the small Psychic Type floating in place as it takes its stand-or levitation, in this case-on the field. "Okay, then. Chell, can you handle this?" I ask the Oshawott, who quickly nods as she walks up to face the opposing side. "I got this, Mister Jay!" She smirks confidently as I smile back, giving her a thumbs up in response. "Get ready, 'cause I'm not about to lose to you!" The kid cockily smirks, commanding his Munna to engage us in battle…

"Aw, man! I lost!" The kid grumbles in disappointment, returning his fainted Lilipup for it to rest. Meanwhile, I inwardly sigh as the fight ends in a boring, anticlimactic fashion. Not even five minutes later, I've already plowed through both of his Pokemon with Chell alone, seeing her run back over to me with a smile due to her recent win. "I did it, Mister Jay!" She chirps, her smile only growing wider as I pat her on the head and give her a high five. "I knew you could do it, kiddo." I grin back at her, hearing her giggle and feeling her nuzzle her head into my hand as I rub her fur. She's still full of energy as usual, no signs of slowing down in her actions as she quickly runs over to the team to rejoin them. "Here's your money, Mister…" The kid hands me some cash as he looks down in defeat, sighing in dejection. "Hey, don't feel so bummed out over one loss, kid. One loss isn't the end of the world, ya know." I smile at him, causing him to look up at me. "But losing doesn't feel good at all!" He groans, to which I smirk. "Well, you may not feel good about it, but at least you can still fight and win some more fights later. What doesn't kill you makes ya stronger, after all." I reply, to which he grins again, the same confident smile I saw when he first laid eyes on me.

"Hey, you're right! I'll keep fighting, and I'll get stronger! I'll beat everyone, even you!" He pumps a fist into the air, running off towards Striaton City, most likely to heal up his team. "Thanks, Mister! You'd better be ready next time we meet, 'cause I'm gonna win!" He calls out to me as I wave to him, both of us leaving the scene as I feel my smile get wider. "Well team, we'd better work harder, eh? No sense in letting kids beat us up later." I grin, getting Chell to grin along with me. "You sure knew what to say to that kid, Mister Jay! He looked so happy, even though he lost." Chell comments on my handling of the situation, smiling at me cheerfully. "I must say, you are quite skilled when it comes to dealing with children, Jay." Katrina adds, looking at me with her usual smile as we continue our trek through the forest. "Yeah, Jay. For an idiot, you sure handled that pretty well." Alita smirks, while I shrug in response to the praise. "Well, when you gotta look after your younger sister a lot, you learn a few things." I reply, causing Alita to look at me with an expression of confusion. "Wait a sec. What do you mean, you had to look after your younger sister a lot?" She asks me, while I inwardly curse myself for letting that one slip out so easily.

"Well, my parents weren't around to look after the two of us, so I had to take the responsibility into my own hands." I tell her, which raises some suspicion from Nesia and Alita, but the two of them just leave the conversation there, as my sour expression tells them it's a rather sensitive topic. However, Chell doesn't really get it. "Why were your parents busy? Did they have important work to do?" She suddenly asks, causing me to nod. "Yeah. My dad fell into his work, while my mom jumped the gun a little too late." I sigh, not really wanting her to know the true story. To tell the truth, my past is a lot darker than this colorful world of Pokemon.

"But the past isn't that important. I live for the here and now, and that's what I intent to keep doing." I tell Chell, patting her on the head as she looks at me with a wider grin, her recent frown of concern for me now gone. "Thanks for worrying about me." I grin back at her. "No problem!" She replies, looking back at me with her cheerful expression. In the middle of that conversation, I suddenly see a particularly large patch of grass, with no shortage of tress scattered loosely around the area. Perfect.

"Alright, then. Why don't we stop here for a bit to train, shall we? We've gotta make sure we're in good shape, in case we bump into someone who's looking for a fight." I suggest, the team voicing their agreement as we spread out a little bit to work on our stuff. "For now, just practice on stuff you're good at. Never hurts to get better at what you do best, right? I'll do my own thing from here, take a look at stuff you're doing and comment on it. Sound good?" I give them the rundown of what I want them to do, sitting down on a particular spot of grass as I say so. They all nod as they move away from my position to do their training. In particular, I see Nesia running around much faster than the rest of the team, her body emitting a faint green glow as she fires Energy Ball after Vine Whip at her targets in rapid succession. It seems like she has the ability Chlorophyll, which allows for Grass Types to exude faster mobility in sunlight.

With the rest of the team working up a sweat, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't do my share of the work. As such, I decide to drop my thoughts for now, take off my hoodie and do some exercise. Sit-ups aren't that hard to do, with me quickly finishing one set of a hundred. While I do my push-ups, I can actually take a look at the team's progress. Chell's hacking away at her tree, small marks clearly evident across the trunk where she struck. Alita is still going on with small bursts of Air Cutter, sometimes moving up close to deliver an Aerial Ace to the leafy area of the tree. Nesia is still keeping up her rapid assault of ranged and close range attacking, while Katrina is clawing and hitting away at her tree, Pursuit and Scratch both seemingly quite easy to chain together. Once in a while, she does stop to deliver a Dark Pulse, the beam of dark energy slamming against the tree with considerable force.

However, I do notice faults in their attacks. Chell is in desperate need of something that will allow her to get closer to her target so she can deal some damage with her scalchop, as a close ranged fighting style will be a nightmare against a long ranged opponent like a Psychic Type, who can utilize their natural telekinetic abilities to render her scalchop useless. Katrina needs to work on reducing the time it takes to charge up her Dark Pulse, as faster enemies will easily be able to take advantage of the sudden slow in her onslaught of attacks. Alita could use some more power to her long ranged attacking, as Air Cutter looks like it could hit harder if she charged it into an Air Slash. Nesia seems to lack a more powerful kind of close combat option, as her Vine Whip may prove to be insufficient in dealing with Fighting Types like Sawk or Throh.

As such, I decide to start with Chell, the Oshawott still diligently slicing at the tree without mercy. Walking closer to her, I can see beads of sweat already soaking her fur from top to bottom, the moisture sticking to her coat as she pants heavily. "Hey Chell, you got a minute? I wanna talk." I ask her, to which she quickly puts her training on hold and runs over to me. Handing her a bottle of water, I take the cap off of mine as we both drink up, Chell quickly downing a couple of big gulps herself and letting out a contented sigh at the feeling of cold water soothing her throat and running into her stomach. "Ahh! Thanks, Mister Jay!" She thanks me, handing me back the water bottle as she sits with me, both of us sweating. "So, I was thinking about your swords just now, and I have an idea. You're gonna need to get the opponent to stand still, at least for a moment, so you can slash at them." I tell her, causing her to look at me with interest as I flip the bottle in the air, catching it with my hand.

"Since Water Gun doesn't really do the trick, I'm going to have to try and help you learn Water Pulse." When I finish telling her my plan, Chell gives me a nod to show her understanding. "Sure thing, Mister Jay!" She starts, looking quite confident until she realizes that I'm literally asking her to do something she's never done before. "But, um, how do I learn Water Pulse?" She finishes, looking at me with a sheepish grin. "Okay, I'll need you to use Water Gun first." I tell her, getting her smile to become more confident as she steps into familiar territory. She quickly blasts a jet of water from her mouth, hitting the tree with good accuracy. "Done! What now?" She asks me, while I take a seat next to her. "Okay, so here's the thing. Imagine using Water Gun, but with your hands." I tell her, watching the Oshawott shut her eyes in concentration. "Mm hm, now what?" She tells me, eyes still closed shut. "Think harder. Concentrate on the water, and put it into a ball you can hold." I tell her, causing her eyes to shut close harder. Meanwhile, water is slowly seeping from her paws, dripping onto the ground.

"Hold the water, and make sure it doesn't go anywhere. You control it, Chell. You, and only you. Focus on how much you want it to happen." I encourage her gently, pushing her mental state of mind along as she holds a stance, more and more water seeping from her paws, from the slight drips to a dribble, then to a steady flow. "You're doing great, Chell. Keep at it, and focus!" I cheer her on, my voice growing in volume as I get more excited. Slowly but surely, the water stops flowing onto the ground, and forming a ball in the middle of her cupped paws. It takes a while, but a ball of water the size of my fist soon forms in her paws. "Chell, I want you to open your eyes slowly." I tell her, which causes her to slowly open her eyes and look at the swirling ball of water cupped in her paws. Her eyes lighting up, she squeals with glee as she holds it up for me to see. "Look, Mister Jay, look! I did it!" She cheers, looking quite proud of herself. I smile back at her, patting her head. "Heh, you sure did kiddo. I'm real proud of ya." However, the ball starts to get a mite shaky in her paw as she looks at me, the attack quickly exploding out into a burst of water, splashing onto me and my white shirt, as well as Chell's entire body. As I refocus my vision, the force of the blast feeling like a slap to the face, I see Chell on her back, dazed from the force of the explosion. "Oops. Sorry…" She sheepishly grins, to which I chuckle. "That was amazing, Chell! It's honestly hard to believe you've never done that before." I praise my little Oshawott, whose smile gets even wider as she accepts the compliment with happiness. "Now, we're gonna have to teach you how to throw it." I tell her, to which she complies without complaint. "Okay, Mister Jay!"

She's got some way to go, but at least it stunned something, even if it was herself.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

[Jay]

After that initial little mishap, I had Chell focus on her charging and maintaining of the Water Pulse more, lest it blows up in her face again. As such, I told her to throw the ball of water into the air whenever she makes one, to ensure that she can form the attack quickly and keep it intact so that it explodes where she wants it. Initially it exploded whenever it left her paws, showering the area around her as well as herself in water. In order to keep her focused on the task at hand, I decide to walk on over to the other team members and give them some advice as well. Taking a look at Katrina, I can see that she's breathing pretty hard as she relentlessly strikes her tree trunk over and over with paws shrouded in dark energy. She's running around with blinding speed, gracefully striking down onto the tree time and time again in rapid succession. As I watch her finally slow down to take a breather, I lightly tap her on the shoulder blade to get her attention. "Heya, Kat. Want a drink?" I ask her, lifting the bottle of water to her attention. "Yes, thank you Jay. I would very much like some water." She smiles at me in thanks as I pull out a small plastic dish and pour some of the water in it, letting the eager feline lap up the liquid quite quickly.

When she's done with her drink, she then refocuses her gaze to me. "What was it that you wanted to discuss, Jay?" She asks me, her tail swishing behind her slowly as she waits to hear what I have to say. "Well, I've noticed your strikes, and I have to say that although you hit fast, you're gonna have to hit harder than that." I tell her, to which she nods in understanding. "I see. How do you suggest I solve this issue?" She asks, to which I sit down and give her my honest opinion. "Well, I suggest you could try charging your attacks. Focus on channeling dark energy into you paws like you're using Pursuit first." I urge her, to which she immediately allows a dark aura to engulf her front paws. "It is done." She confirms her completion of the attack, getting me to nod. "Good. Now, I want you to focus on your paws. Put more energy into your attack. The idea here is that if you put enough energy into your Pursuit attack, it'll become Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch, if used right before your opponent makes an attack, does double the damage and has a chance of making them dazed." I tell her, causing her to nod as she begins to focus and begin imparting more and more of her energy into her forepaws. At first, I only see the excess dark energy coming off her paws in small wisps, dissolving into the air as she tries to keep the energy together. However, she doesn't give up and persists in the energy buildup around her paws, allowing less and less dark energy to escape. Eventually I notice that the clumps of shadowy aura around her paws have doubled in size, almost resembling fists made of darkness.

"It seems that…I have done it." She breathes, sounding quite tired likely due to the extra exertion and focus she had to put into making the attack happen. "Indeed you have, Kat. Now, I'm gonna need you to try and work on how long you can keep it going, especially while running. Strike that tree as many times as you can with those paws of yours, and you'll know you pulled it off if you can see a larger indent than the ones you've made thus far." I tell her, getting her to nod as she quickly rushes back over to the tree to continue her training. I can see that she's starting to get the hang of slamming her newly acquired dark fists into the tree, but the dark energy is still a little too tangible and disperse upon impact, so the indents left behind are still roughly the same size as her Pursuit indents. Regardless of her initial failure, she continues to strike at the tree persistently, her narrowed gaze towards her target and her quick and agile strikes not faltering. She doesn't realize this yet, but forcing herself to channel more power into her basic Pursuit attack allows for faster charging of other attacks as well, like her Dark Pulse. "Hey, Kat! Don't hesitate to take a break if ya need one, 'kay?" I warn her before I leave. "You need not worry, Jay. I understand." She nods at me with a smile before she resumes her attacking of the tree trunk. Man, her smile's real charming.

Moving on, I decide to check up on Nesia next. Taking a closer look at her part of the clearing, I can see that she's still using her Energy Ball and her Vine Whip at a long range, the chain of her attacks seemingly a mix of both slow hard hitting and rapid chipping strikes. She's also pretty fast, her speed seemingly a match for Katrina. Her charging of her Energy Ball seems to be a little slow though, as she waits for a little bit before throwing it. "Heya, Ness. There's something I need to tell ya." I tell her as I walk up to her and take a seat on the ground, getting her to look my way with her usual expression. "Yes, Master?" She asks me, her tone of voice carrying the same lack of emotion as usual. "First thing's first, though. Want a drink?" I ask the Snivy as I hold up my bottle of water and unscrew the cap. She nods, to which I hold the bottle close to her mouth, allowing her to grab onto it with her small hands and take some gulps of the water. She's quick to finish up her drink, as she pushes the bottle lightly back to me. "I've been watching you fight for a bit, and I think it's time that you learn a close range move. Vine Whip doesn't really work as an attack, as you can use it to grab onto things and move around." I tell her, seeing her listen to my opinion with interest. "As such, I figured you should try and use your tail to your advantage. Charge energy into it like you're using Energy Ball, but try to let it surround your tail instead of gathering it into a ball that you can throw." I explain, getting a nod from her as she begins to gather energy into her tail.

Due to my past experience with the others when it comes to changing the focus of their energies, I decide to warn Nesia beforehand about how hard it's going to get. "Now, take your time, Ness. It doesn't matter if…" I start to tell her, but my words are caught in my throat as I see her already having formed a leafy green aura around her tail leaf. "Okay, never mind." I mutter to myself, amazed at how quickly she had managed to get that to work. "You really do learn fast, dontcha?" I grin at her, stroking her head gently to praise her as she smiles and melts into my touch. "Your hand feels warm, Master…" Nesia sighs as I pet her, happiness clear to see in her expression. "And you feel nice and smooth, Ness." I shoot back at her, enjoying the feeling of cool scales against the soft flesh of my hand. Stopping my petting of her head, I then clear my throat to get her attention. "Alright, now that you've managed to turn your tail into a Leaf Blade, I suggest you try and challenge Chell to a fight, see if it helps with your close range attacking." I tell her, which gets her to nod as she runs over to Chell and immediately puts forth her request of sparring with her. They soon kick it off, Chell aiming her Water Pulse at the nimble little Snivy, while Nesia retaliates with her newly learned Leaf Blade attack. Already I can see Nesia's tail clashing with Chell's scalchop, making small clanging noises as the blades of grass and water strike against each other. The aura around her tail is still shaky, but holds together nonetheless as Nesia puts it to the test. Nesia is quite the fast learner, huh?

Last but not least, I decide to check up on Alita, who's still aiming her Air Cutter at the tops of various trees, each blade of air making their mark as they strip each tree branch of its leaves and leave small cuts in the wood of the tree trunks of said trees. Her occasional Aerial Ace is also landing some nice blows on the trees, each shot making their mark with lightning speed and no shortage of power. "Hey, Ali. You got a sec?" I call out to her from the ground, getting her attention and causing her to land next to me. "Yeah? What is it?" She asks, to which I point to the trees she cut up. "I took a look at your attacking, and I have to say that you're getting better at aiming your Air Cutter." I start, which obviously gives her ego a nice boost as she smirks. "Well, duh! I have been practicing, after all." She boasts, looking quite proud of herself before I sigh and smile wryly at her, which reminds her that I did tell her to do so. "Of course, you did kinda remind me that I needed to…" She trails off, her grin getting sheepish. "Nah, it was all you just now, Ali. You don't just care about the rest of us, but you're also pretty awesome." I reassure her, which causes her to blush as she gets embarrassed, looking away from me. "Yeah I'm awesome and I care about the others, but I sure as hell don't care about you, idiot!" She huffs, while I continue what I have to say and pour her a dish of water for her to drink from.

"I was thinking about your Air Cutter, and I feel like if you could put more power into those blades of yours, they could cause even more damage." I explain my train of thought to her as she looks back to me and nods. "Well yeah, I get that. But how do I do that?" She asks, giving me a clueless look. "Well, try focusing on your wings first when you fly. Think about how much power you're going to put into the next blades you launch, and put that power into your wings. Think you can do that?" I tell her, adding in that extra challenging remark to get her riled up and more focused. "Hah! I don't need to think, 'cause I know I can do it! Just watch me!" She smirks, taking to the sky and setting her sights on the tree unlucky enough to meet her immediate gaze. She takes a moment to mentally ready herself, then flaps her wings as hard as she can, trying her best to perform an Air Slash. However, the result is not a few large blades, but a storm of smaller ones that shred the tree's branches and strip it of its leaves. Well, at least I know she's got the power to do it… "Damn it!" Alita huffs, obviously not pleased with how she did just then. "Nah, its fine. You just need to get used to putting more power into each blade you launch." I tell her, which causes her to nod as she smirks in determination. "I'll get it done right, just you wait!" She smirks cockily as she flies up and tries again to launch an Air Slash attack at another tree. It fails once more, another storm of Air Cutter blades leaving her wings and slicing up the trees. However, she doesn't give in, continuing her efforts. She may not learn as fast as the others, but she's determined, I'll give her that.

Watching Alita training like that really puts me in the mood for some more sets of exercise, so I get to work and commence with my pushups and sit ups. I end up sweating all over again as a result, so I sit back down and take another swig from my water bottle. "Mister Jay! Look, Mister Jay!" Chell suddenly calls to me, her voice sounding quite excited. "Hmm? What is it, kiddo?" I ask, wondering what she's managed to do this time. As I turn to the source of the voice, I can see that she's finally managed to keep the Water Pulse steady in her paws as she tosses it from paw to paw with ease. Nesia has since then returned to her tree, slashing away at it with her Leaf Blade tail over and over again. "I'm doing it, Mister Jay!" She cheers happily, not noticing the accidental increase of her throwing strength that sends the sphere straight into the air behind her and right onto my head. The force of the explosion of the pressurized water is like a hammer blow to my skull, dazing me immediately as my brain struggles to recover from the trauma.

When I eventually come back to reality, I look at Chell to see her looking at her hand in confusion. "Huh? Where'd it go?" She wonders out loud, until she turns around to see me soaked again, a deadpan look on my face as water drips from my hair. "Oopsie!" She sheepishly giggles, causing me to walk over and grin playfully as I rub her head. "Heh, not a bad throw kid. The power in that thing was pretty good, too. Now you just need to make sure you'll be able to hit what you're throwing it at." I tell her, causing her to nod. "You got it, Mister Jay!" She says as she quickly runs off, now aiming her Water Pulse at a nearby tree and throwing the explosive sphere of liquid. However, the attack completely misses the tree, slamming into the ground far away from it. As the both of us sweatdrop and she sheepishly giggles, I can see that she needs to focus on her aim of the attack now, so I leave her to it. While the team continues to work on their moves, I can't help but smile. We're making progress, and some rather impressive progress at that. I'm really glad that the team is taking training so seriously.

Resting my tired muscles while underneath the shade of a tree, I listen to the sounds around me, besides the sound of splintering wood, whooshing blades and the occasional battle cry from one of the girls. Focusing on the more subtle sounds around us, I can faintly hear the sound of running water behind the tree. Getting up from my leaning position against the tree, I decide to follow the sound, but not before turning the computer on to leave a note informing the team of my absence. Pulling out my cooking pot from my backpack, I quickly head off to find the water source. It doesn't take me long to find it, as I soon find myself face to face with a river. The water within the natural source is quite clear, and looks safe enough for drinking. Quickly using the pot to scoop up some of the water, I can see that it doesn't contain visible impurities, either. "Meh, this stuff look safe enough." I mutter to myself as I scoop some more water into the metallic pot for later.

Taking a closer look at the riverbed, I spot some holes in the rocks that look big enough for my hand to slip into. Upon wading into the ankle high area of the river for closer inspection, I can see small hints of crustaceans here and there. I smirk as I edge towards the hole, careful not to spook the crayfish inside. Once I'm within grabbing distance, I quickly thrust my hand into the hole, grabbing onto the hard, smooth shell of the creature inside. The crayfish retaliates, pinching my hand with no shortage of power. I wince, but I refuse to let go and eventually pull the little bastard out of its hidey hole. It struggles in my grasp, but I quickly toss it into the pot back on the shore, sealing its fate as I look around for some more. Looking back at my bleeding hand, I make a metal note to get my mitts on some gloves when we reach the next Gym (heh). Nevertheless, I continue to hunt for the little crustaceans, soon hauling ass back to the training area with a pot half filled with washed crayfish and ten scraped, bleeding fingers.

The container is pretty damn heavy, and I still need to find myself some timber and some tinder. Tinder is pretty much readily available at the campsite, with all the dried grass there and all, but timber will pose a little more of a challenge. Fortunately, the forest that separates the training area from the river has just what I need, as dry sticks and branches are in plentiful supply here. There are rather jagged bite marks lining the ends of the branches I pick up, resembling those made by jaws of the insect variety. Probably some colonies of ants that set up shop around here, but there are a lot of chewed off tree branches here, and no regular sized ants I know of could work this quickly. While I ponder about the mysterious situation, my question is quickly answered in the form of a giant, metallic ant with red eyes and black feelers crawling out of the bushes to the left of me and holding a bundle of leaves in its jaws. As it notices me, its jaws snap in a defensive manner as it eyes me suspiciously. "Be wary, human. This is our territory, so you'd be wise to leave now." It warns me with narrowed eyes, and for good reason. A single Durant doesn't pose much of a threat, being no bigger than Chell, but a horde of the guys and you've got the recipe for a painful death by snapping, metallic mandibles.

"Yeah, thanks for the heads up. I'm travelling, so I'll leave soon." I nod in thanks towards the ant that confronted me, getting it to nod back. "Very well." The ant replies, starting to leave the premises. "Farewell, human. I wish you the best of luck in your travels." It bids me farewell as it turns to take its leave. "Good luck with foraging." I nod back at it, the both of us leaving our separate ways. I can help but wonder why the Durant was so hostile towards me. They eat leaves, and they aren't that territorial to begin with... As I reach the familiar sight of the training grounds, I see the four members of the team still training, seemingly having not noticed my disappearance. I quickly get to work, setting up a circle of rocks to contain the fire, while I light the ball of dried grass with a match. Blowing on the pile of dried grass to allow it to catch fire, I quickly place the now burning tinder ball in the middle of the circle, setting up a stack of wood around it. As the branches quickly start to burn, I pull out my trusty grilling rack and place it over the flames, putting my pan over the rack to cook the crayfish. As I pour some oil into the pan and wait for the pan to reach optimal temperatures, I feel a tap on my back. Turning around, I see Chell looking at the fire with interest, as she had been training the closest to me as I pull out some herb bottles out of my backpack.

"What are you doing, Mister Jay?" She asks, staring at me with curiosity as I crush some garlic cloves in my hands and place them into the pan, the oil sizzling around the garlic. "I'm cooking lunch." I reply simply, sprinkling some smoked paprika into the pan along with some dried parsley, waiting for that sweet, spicy smell to arise from the paprika to form before I add the crayfish. "What's cooking?" She asks, unfamiliar with the new word. "You'll see." I smirk, adding the crayfish to the pan and letting their shells take on a nice red color. "Smells good!" Chell comments, taking a deep whiff of the smell now wafting from the pan. Before she gets too close to the flames and burns herself, I quickly reach out a hand to hold her back. "Oof!" She squeaks as she makes contact with my hand, landing flat on her butt as I sigh in relief. "That was close, kiddo. A couple more steps and you'd be on the menu tonight." I chuckle, Chell finally taking notice of just how close she was to becoming roasted otter. "Whew, that was close! Sorry, Mister Jay." She apologizes, sitting down as the rest of the team starts to take notice of the smell of burning wood. "It's fine. Say, you were on fire with the speed you're learning these moves." I joke, causing her to giggle. As I put the crayfish onto a plate, I remove the pan and put the pot on instead, the water slowly reaching its boiling point as I put the lid on. Taking out some more airtight containers out of my backpack, I reach in and take out some vegetables-carrots, celery and some onions. I start to reach into my backpack for my knife, but I suddenly remember Chell has something better.

"Hey, kiddo? I'm gonna have to use your scalchop for a sec." I tell her, causing her to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "Okay, but what for?" She asks as she allows the blade of water to form from the gap of the shell and hands it to me. "To cut these veggies up. If they're too big, they don't cook as fast." I explain, quickly taking her scalchop and slicing up the vegetables in a flash. Tossing them into the now boiling water, I get out a can of tomatoes from my backpack, emptying the contents of the can into the pot. "Woah, something smells good!" Alita, who had just touched down, now stares hungrily at the plate of crayfish. As I sprinkle some seasoning into the pot, I take notice of the arrival of the rest of the team. "Mister Jay made it himself! He's so amazing!" Chell tells them, which makes me blush a little. "Nah, it's nothing much." I reply, honestly not finding my average cooking skills impressive. "Nonsense, Jay. This does look and smell quite delicious." Katrina reassures me as Nesia nods in agreement. "It looks tasty, Master." She tells me, as I reach down and tear the shell off of four of the crayfish. "If you say so, girls. Wanna try one?" I ask them, each one of them taking one and biting into it. Immediately, their eyes light up and they immediately chew up the rest of the crustacean in mere seconds. "Mmm! Tastes good!" Chell grins, munching on her piece with gusto. "I'll say! Man, this is great!" Alita adds, and she's eating quite quickly to prove her point. "Agreed. It tastes amazing, Jay." Katrina adds, as she quickly proceeds to pull apart the plate of crayfish along with the others. Before I know it, the plate is empty, riddled only with broken bits of shell.

Chuckling at how well received my cooking is amongst the team, I quickly tend to my pot, the soup inside already beginning to take on a lovely smell. "Yep, that looks good, alright." I mutter to myself as I use a ladle to take a sip of what I made. "Yep, that's good alright." I conclude as I take out some bowls and fill them up with the vegetable soup. "What's that?" Alita asks, looking at the bowls of soup in confusion. "It's soup. Wanna try some?" I offer her, holding out a bowl for her to drink from. "Wait, you drink this stuff?" She looks at me funny, now more doubtful of this strange substance due to my personal preference in drinks. "Trust me, alright? It won't kill ya." I reassure her, placing the bowl in front of her. "I'm not falling for it this time, you idiot." She voices her opinion on my drinks loud and clear, turning away from the bowl. Chell is still quite supportive of me, as she quickly lifts her bowl and takes a sip of the soup inside. Her eyes quickly light up at the rush of big, bold flavors, and she is quick to empty her bowl before looking at me for another. "Is there any more?" She asks, allowing me to answer her question by grabbing her bowl and filling it to the brim. "Yeah, of course. But as soup-er as my cooking tastes, you should slow it on down." I joke, to which Alita groans, while Nesia simply gives me another eye roll. "Really, you idiot? Do you always have to spit out one of your puns?" Alita sighs, while I grin in a goofy manner. "Yup." I reply, taking a gulp out of my soup bowl.

"This does taste quite extraordinary." Katrina suddenly comments, lapping at her bowl of soup at a rapid pace. "Master's food is so tasty…" Nesia smiles, drinking up her bowl quite quickly as well. Even the soft vegetables are not spared, as they quickly disappear from their bowls one chunk at a time. Alita, now slightly reassured by the positive feedback, takes a peck at some of the veggies floating in the concoction, before she proceeds to slurp up her portion as well. As she finishes her soup, she notices me putting more soup into the bowls of the rest of the team, and immediately moves in to interject. "Hey! Save some for me!" She cries, managing to push Chell out of the way in the process. "Hey! I want some too!" Chell protests, shoving Alita back and getting a chuckle out of me as they begin to brawl over who gets the next portion. "…" Nesia says nothing but her face shows that she wants in on the soup as well.

"They are like children, are they not?" Katrina remarks, knowing all too well that I'd save some food for her. "Says the Liepard who steals things for fun." I smirk at her, causing her to giggle. "Touché, Jay." She replies.

 **(A/N): Heya, all. Roccer here to say thanks to all of you supportive viewers out there. Not only have we breached 26,000 views on this story of mine, we've also hit an awesome 80+ followers! What!? That's more than all of my fingers and my toes multiplied by four! Algorithms! MATH! I can't thank you guys enough for all the reviews containing criticism, and the praiseful ones, even though we all know that I don't spend nearly enough time on posting new chapters.**

 **As such, I've opened up an account on SoFurry! I run by the same name there to post my smut! If you guys wanna read or jerk off to the stuff there, go ahead! Leave some reviews too, for all you unsatisfied viewers out there, 'cause I know I have room for improvement, or if you simply want me to post up moar written porn on SoFurry!**

 **One more thing. I've decided that, in honor of the milestone of 50+ follower fanbase that has been way, WAY overdue, I've decided to let YOU, the readers, choose what happens next in this tale of adventures both outside and inside the bedroom (heh heh). I'm hosting a poll that will last until this Wednesday, where you all get to decide when the sexy sex things should appear here: ASAP, or allow me to continue my current direction, where the banging of Poke Pussy may not be here for some time yet (I'm real sorry about this, but I like story and character development). So come on, everyone! Vote, and I will make sure that the majority of you lovely viewers get what you desire! (Also, I shall give out one free digital cookie to the awesome individual that gets the reference in this note first. This lucky dude or dudette gets to ask me for one piece of smut writing that they wish to see way, way ahead of time via PM by guessing the reference right, and I shall see to it that I deliver the smut ASAP. However, Jay's harem is yet to be fully assembled, so you could hold on to that cookie and wait for me, I dunno…)**


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

[Jay]

A pot of soup and an hour later, we once again head off down the route to resume our trek. "That was really good, Mister Jay!" Chell sighs in content as she rests up in my arms, having had her fill of what I had cooked. "I'll say. Man, that was amazing, Jay!" Alita adds, clearly impressed by my cooking skills. "It must have been, if you two ate up more than half of the pot all by yourselves." Seriously though, I never really did believe my sister when she said I could cook. Guess she was right about my food, huh? I chuckle, that particular memory of the two of them drinking their portions up at lightning speed still fresh in my mind. It still amazes and confuses the hell out of me how two Pokemon that are substantially smaller than me could fit so much food down their gullets. It's quite scary, if I'm to be honest.

"I agree with them. Your food is quite delicious, Jay." Katrina reassures me with her usual smile, Nesia nodding to show her agreement. "Thanks, girls. Glad someone other than my sister appreciates my cooking." I grin in thanks, finding the praise to be quite the nice boost to my overall mood. Knowing that I managed to satisfy them in some way also leaves a nice, warm feeling in my chest that I can't blame on the soup. Needless to say, it's quite the change from when I was alone with my sister over the years. It feels…pretty nice. Sometimes, I wish that the only thing that I had to do when traveling under the alias of being a Pokemon Trainer was to simply have a good time with the team, to actually live life.

However, once I hear the voice of not one, but two kids looking for a fight, I sigh as I am quickly reminded of the cons to being battle ready all the time. "Hey, you! We wanna fight!" The younger kid, a boy, looks at me confidently as he pulls out one of his Pokeballs and points it at me. "Let us do battle." The taller girl that had been standing next to him follows along and also decides to challenge us, placing a hand on her belt of Pokeballs. They both throw out their own capsules, the boy's Pokeball containing a Patrat while the girl's Pokeball released a Munna. "This is a double battle, so you'd better get ready!" The boy grins, while the girl observes my Pokemon closely. "We're not about to lose." She finishes, making me quite nervous about this. They seem well coordinated enough, and two minds are usually better than one and always unfair. Besides, I have never fought a double battle before, so I may end up getting trounced this time.

Looking over to the team, I jerk a thumb in the direction of the two eager kids. "So team, we have a double battle on our hands. Who wants to go?" I ask them, Alita quickly flying onto the field before I could blink. "I'm going, duh! It's been ages since I've done anything!" She interjects, causing me to nod in agreement and realize that she's actually right about this one. "Welp, can't argue with that. Anyone else?" I ask the rest of them, Katrina silently and quickly rushing up next to Alita. "I wish to fight, as well. The successful usage of my new move requires that I train." She replies as she crouches into her fighting stance next to Alita, who's already flying up and getting ready to throw down. "Alright, then. We're ready!" I call out to our opponents and confirm my choice, starting off the battle. "Patrat, use Bite!" The kid commands, the small rodent rushing over to deliver a Bite attack, it's fangs glowing a faint white color as it closes the gap between itself and my Pokemon. The girl however, remains passive. She's not telling her Munna to do anything, seemingly observing my moves before she makes hers. "Dodge, you two!" I quickly blurt out, getting Katrina to nimbly weave her way past the Patrta without much effort, while Alita simply flies a little higher to evade. Now that those two are split up and the Patrat has its back turned, I quickly take advantage of the boy's poor choice. "Ali, try Air Slash!" I quickly call out to her, Alita channeling her inner energy and flapping her wings at the rodent below to launch blades of air at it. However, the intended result is not achieved, as only small blades manage to form and fly at the rodent. The blades are still numerous in number, though, so there's little to no chance that the Patrat's gonna make his way out of that one. Damn, looks like that attack will need some working up on, though. "No, Patrat!" The boy realizes the futility of telling his Patrat to dodge the air blade storm, and can only watch the attack whizz towards his Pokemon.

However, the girl sees this failed attack as her opportunity to intervene. Those blades are still gonna cause some massive damage if they connect, and her Munna had just the move to help the boy's Patrat out. "Munna, Psychic!" She commands, the small Psychic Type starting to focus and forming a light blue aura around the Air Cutter blades as its eyes gain a light blue hue to them. So, she's planning to throw the attack right back at us, huh? Not gonna happen. "Katrina, use Sucker Punch on the Munna!" I quickly react to the Munna's attack initiation, Katrina leaping forth at a blinding speed and making her dark aura covered forepaw slam right into the Munna's forehead. The attack connects and does some damage, but the Munna remains relatively unfazed as it continues to carry out its command. The obvious lack of flinching meant that Katrina still used Pursuit just now. Pointing the blades of air at Katrina, the Munna then uses its powers to fling them right at her and puts her in a spot of trouble. Shit, should've seen that one coming. "Katrina, quick! Dodge it!" I quickly tell the feline to avoid the incoming death by a thousand cuts, and she quickly starts sprinting in an attempt to dodge the assault. However, she isn't totally successful, as some of the blades still manage to graze her leg slightly and causes her to hiss in pain as they connect with her soft fur and flesh.

The sudden damage causes her to lose her balance, making her trip over herself and skid to a halt close to the boy's Patrat. The boy sees his chance to deal some more hits in as Katrina struggles to stand from her sudden slip up, and takes it. "Use Bite again, Patrat!" The boy grins, watching as the Patrat closes in on Katrina's helpless form. "Ali, use Aerial Ace on the Patrat to help Kat out!" I quickly yell, getting Alita to quickly descend from her aerial vantage point and poke into the Patrat with her beak, breaking it out of its attack and making it roll across the ground. Whew, that was close. However, this pair is proving to be quite the challenge. The girl can back the boy up, allowing him to make some rash decisions as they work together. However, they're only this formidable when they work together. If I can somehow take one of them out, I could win this. I need to get the Munna to lose focus of Katrina or Alita at least, so they can make a move to end it. I need two long range attacks launched at the same time, so that the Munna has a harder time using Psychic on them. But where would I… Wait a sec. Doesn't Katrina know how to use Dark Pulse? I sigh as I come to this realization. Damn it, I'm such an idiot.

"Katrina, use Dark Pulse! Alita, use Air Slash! Aim them at the Munna!" I tell them, Katrina quickly managing to charge up her dark energy. "Quickly, get Patrat behind Munna!" The girl says, confident that her Pokemon will be able to block off the attack. The boy nods, quickly getting his Pokemon behind hers as Katrina charges her attack to hurtle it at the Psychic Type. However, I see that Alita isn't starting to flap her wings as fast as she normally would have if she was about to use Air Cutter. Instead, she's moving her wings at a slower pace this time. She's also shutting her eyes tightly together, like she's trying real hard to do something. As I watch, I see her wings begin to take on a light blue hue to them, proving to me that she's actually very close to getting the attack right. "That's it, Ali! You can do it!" I cheer, supporting her as she finally open her eyes and lets out the energy she was storing up. "Take this!" She cries, launching blades that are much larger than her previous ones. These blades also seem to have a light blue coloration to them, another sign that she has actually managed to pull off an Air Slash. "Quick, Munna! Catch those blades!" The girl commands, the Munna's eyes glowing bright blue once again. The blades are quickly stopped in midair by the Munna's Psychic hold, but not before a few slip past its concentration and hit the Patrat behind it. The blades cause the rodent to flinch and become dazed, temporarily putting it out of commission. Meanwhile, the Dark Pulse blasts the Munna head-on, dealing significant damage and forcing it back.

The girl, desperate to try and save the situation, quickly tries to take Katrina out. "Munna, quick! Use those blades to take out that Liepard!" She cries, Munna following through with her order and uses its Psychic powers to make the blades follow Katrina, attempting to knock her out with the attack. "Quick, Kat! Use Sucker Punch!" I tell her, Katrina once again rushing forth to deliver a punch with her paw while the blades follow behind, hot on her tail. This time, however, the aura around her paw holds together, the full intended force of the blow slamming right into the Munna, causing it to flinch. Its hold on the Air Slash blades is interrupted, causing them to continue on their intended straight trajectory and slamming right into the Munna as well as the Patrat who had stumbled right out from behind Munna. The barrage of slashes and cuts quickly overwhelm the two opposing Pokemon, causing them to faint on the spot as they fall over, swirls in their eyes. I let out a sigh of relief and my smile resurfaces once I see the fainted opposition, our victory assured. "And that's that. Nice work, team." I give them both thumbs up as they return to my side of the field, both smiling from the rush of adrenaline from the fight and the praise.

"Aw, man!" The boy cries out, frowning as he returns his Patrat to its ball. The girl doesn't look much happier either, returning her Munna with a neutral expression. "We lost..." She sighs, before she looks to me with a smile. "Nevertheless, it was a match well fought." She nods to me, holding out her hand for a shake. "Yeah! Thanks for the practice, dude!" The boy smirks at me, arms on his hips as I shake the girl's hand, happy to see that both Trainers had taken the defeat pretty well. "You guys were really good, too. If those two hadn't pulled those moves off when they did, the match would probably have been a loss for me." I admit with a wry grin, causing the confident looks that the two winning Pokemon were sporting to quickly fade. "Hey! I pulled it off anyway!" She retorts with a huff, looking quite peeved that I had taken the credit. As she says so, Katrina nods to show her agreement. "I agree. Alita and I did manage to win regardless." She adds, making me sigh and shake my head. Those two may have different personalities, but their egos are surprisingly similar. "I know, you two. I couldn't have won without you. So don't be mad, alright?" I grin, petting their heads and making Katrina purr. "Well, I suppose I could let this one slide…" She grins cheekily, while Alita sighs. "I forgive you. But don't doubt my skills next time, you idiot!" She grins, causing me to roll my eyes with a smirk.

Turning around to the two children, I decide to ask them about something. "So, why are you two battling together, anyway? From what I've heard, Double Battles are a fairly new idea here in Unova. Besides, the Unova League Championships are supposed to be fought alone." Upon hearing the question, the boy quickly speaks up. "We're not gonna enter the Tournament yet, ya goof! We've gotta wait for our Trainer's Licenses first!" The boy replies, causing me to nod in understanding. "We're battling to improve on our battling skills. A lot of our friends do it, so we figured we should have some of the fun for ourselves, too." She explains, to which I nod. "Yeah, I get that. Your friends, do they hang around here, too?" I ask her, to which she nods. "Yeah, but lately there have been a new pair in these parts of the Route. They haven't lost a single match with their powerful and rare Grass Type Pokemon." She tells me, getting me to raise an eyebrow in curiosity. "These guys sound good. You fought 'em yet?" I ask her, to which she nods. "Yeah, we have! Those guys are jerks, though. Once we lost, they kept gloating about how rich they are and how their Pokemon are better than ours. It's really annoying!" The boy tells me the catch, his explanation making my expression sour. Nesia has the same expression when I look at her, obviously remembering her past time with Jimmy. "Yeah, I know the type." I sigh, remembering a certain prick this side of the universe that I'd love to kick into the nearest sun.

"They appeared out of nowhere and started picking fights. Each of us lost horribly, even those with the type advantage." The girl sighs, now depressed that we brought the topic up. "They keep beating on us, and then they just randomly attack wild Pokemon that pass by, including a new nest that some Durant dug around here recently." When she says this, the boy nods in agreement while Katrina listens, not liking where this is going. "Yeah! With those guys getting beat up so often, we're seeing less and less of them. Since we can't beat 'em, we can't get them to leave, either!" My fist suddenly clenches in rage in the pocket of my hoodie once I hear how poorly the Durant have been treated around here. "Those bastards!" Alita spits angrily, not liking the sound of how these rich kids were harassing the Durant. "The Durant around here used to be very nice to us before they showed up. They shared with us some of their food whenever we were tired from battling." The girl manages a small smile, remembering about the past as she talks. "They even helped us train! They fought our Pokemon for practice from time to time. That's why we're training, to help the Durant kick those rich jerks outta here!" The boy chips in, making me even angrier about how these Pokemon were treated. No wonder the foraging Durant was so defensive when it saw me! The kids do want to help, but they just can't win. The Durant colony does favor the kids, but due to the harassment, their numbers are dwindling fast and they have to help themselves and the colony to survive. It's those rich asshats that are causing the problem around here, so I've gotta find some way to help them out. "We cannot visit them anymore, as we are afraid that we will give away the position of the nest to those two." The girl sighs sadly.

"Gimme a sec. I've gotta talk this over with the team, see if they feel the same way I do." I tell the two children, looking at the girls with a grim face. "You girls heard them, right?" I ask them, my expression serious. "I sure did! We've gotta do something about this!" Chell quickly speaks her mind, causing Katrina to nod in agreement. "I agree. We cannot allow these savages to continue harassing these Durant any longer." She adds, her gaze showing fierce determination. "We can't let 'em bully those Durant anymore! We've gotta help 'em!" Alita yells her approval, getting a nod out of Nesia as well. "Well, the decision is unanimous, eh?" I smirk, turning around to face the children. "Okay, we've decided. We are gonna do anything we can to help you out." I tell them, the boy letting out a whoop of joy. "Yes! Ya hear that, sis!? They're gonna help us!" He cries happily, while the girl smiles. "Thank you, kind sir." She tells me, happiness glimmering in her eyes as I smile back at her. "I'll solve this problem, you two. I promise. Alright guys, listen in. Here's my plan…" I tell them, sitting down as I begin to explain to them what I had in mind.

Once they all understood what I was up to, I quickly got the older sister to tell the other tag team battling kids in the area about our plan, while the boy leads me to the entrance of the Durant colony. Along the way, I had learned that his name was Alex, while the name of his sister was Angie. "So, Alex. What does the colony look like?" I ask the little dude as he leads us through the forest. "It's really cool with all the glowing rocks, and it's pretty big! And from what I could tell, the Durant are only gonna make it bigger!" He replies, sounding pretty excited about visiting the place again. I smile, seeing someone else being so enthusiastic about helping Pokemon. "You ever met with their queen, Alex?" I ask him, to which he nods so fast, I thought his head was about to fall right off. "Yeah! She's huge, like bigger than the other Durant! She's got a much longer belly than the other Durant too, so we know her when we see her!" He smiles, undoubtedly remembering some good times related to the Durant queen. However, his smile quickly turns into a frown once we reach the cave entrance. "Are you sure this is gonna work? I'm not too sure about this, dude." He speaks up, his expression one of uncertainty and doubt.

"Well, I know this is a weird plan, but it's better than nothing at all, right? Besides, I'm pretty sure this'll work." I tell him, which doesn't help much in the way of reassuring him. "I'm not too sure you'll be able to beat 'em. Maybe I should…" He starts, to which I shake my head. "Nah, it's not gonna work. They've already beaten you before, so they won't be interested in fighting you again. If I know how a rich prick thinks, they always try to beat down on anyone that they haven't before." I explain, getting a nod from him as we enter the Durant colony.

As soon as we enter, we're stopped by two Durant, presumably the guards of this particular entrance to the nest. "Halt, humans! This is the entrance to our colony, and all trespassers are not welcome!" One of them barks at us, making a hissing sound as it addresses us, snapping its mandibles at us as a sign of warning. However, the second one looks familiar. It seems to think the same way, as it's looking at me strangely. "Woah there, buddy. Calm down, we're not here to cause any trouble." I tell him, causing him to look at me suspiciously. "State your business, then." He growls, his impatience making him all the more dangerous due to his ability to literally tear me limb from limb. "We just wanna talk with your Queen. We know of the Trainers that have been bothering you, and we're here to propose a solution." I tell him, as the second Durant finally realizes who I am. "Hey! You're the human who I bumped into earlier!" His response causes me to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, hey. I thought you looked familiar." I reply.

"So you're the one who didn't attack him when he was out." The first one speaks up, looking at me with a softer expression this time around. "Yeah, it would seem so." I tell him, to which he then turns around to face the entrance of the cave. "Follow me, humans. I will take you to the Queen." He nods, motioning for us to follow as he crawls off into the cave. Alex quickly goes after the metallic ant, getting on his hands and knees to crawl into the cave. I follow suit, the team not far behind. As we crawl through the tunnel, I feel Chell poking me with her paw. "Yeah, kiddo?" I ask her, saving my energy for crawling through the cave. "How are you going to talk to them, Mister Jay?" She asks me in a hushed voice, sounding quite nervous about being underground and being inside an ant nest. "I'll see where the talk goes, then tell them about my plan. I'm pretty sure this won't go south." I reply as Nesia manages to slip past Chell and look at me with a doubtful expression. "Pretty sure?" She repeats, her tone of voice emphasizing the lack of faith she had in this idea as well. "Well, if they interacted with Alex just fine, then I'm sure I could reason with 'em." I tell her, still wearing my usual grin. In reality, I'm pretty nervous about this too, but they won't believe me if I don't even believe myself. As such, I act calm, making sure not to panic too much.

Leaving the cramped space of the tunnel behind, we stand up once the ceiling becomes high enough for us to do so. Looking around, we see that we're inside a small room of sorts, with tunnels that presumably lead to other rooms. Noticing Alex's legs disappearing down one of the tunnels in particular, I follow him through the second tunnel. This one leads to a larger room filled with white pill shaped objects the size of my hand, and in the center sits the Queen Durant of the nest. She is currently being tended to by the workers of the nest, and some others are carrying the eggs away from this chamber through a tunnel. I can tell her apart due to her larger size, her wings that are folded back and her much larger, orange abdomen that isn't covered by a layer of steel, and due to the rather obvious fact that she's laying eggs even as we stare at her in all her glory. However, I notice that the speed of her egg-laying is slower than that of the average Durant Queen and her abdomen isn't as bright an orange as how it would be normally, which is quite worrying to see as this proves that the queen is also malnourished, like the workers of the nest that I had seen before. Nevertheless, she looks at us with a neutral expression, making a small happy clicking sound when Alex quickly runs to her side and gently caresses her large, soft, pulsating abdomen. The other Durant are quick to snap and hiss at the small boy, but a clanging sound from the mandibles of the queen quickly silences them as they return to their work.

"Woah, she's so big!" Chell marvels at the new sight, taking in the sight of the leader of the ant colony. Nesia does the same, staring at the Queen with no shortage of curiosity. "So that's a Durant Queen? She looks so…weird." Alita grimaces, the sight of the Queen obviously creeping her out as bit. "You will not insult our queen, Tranquill!" One of the ants hisses at her, snapping its mandibles menacingly. "Oh yeah, Bug-Brain? I'll squish you!" Seeing this as a challenge, Alita quickly looks the bug right in the eyes, getting ready to fight him. However, the queen is quick to stop the violence before it begins. "Cease your actions, my child! There will be no fighting in the nest unless absolutely necessary!" She tells off the Durant like how a mother would scold a child, the worker immediately shying away from Alita and backing off. "Alita, you really shouldn't insult someone like that, especially one that quite literally controls an army." I sigh, getting her to huff as she stares at the worker with hate. "He started it…" She muses, to which Katrina shakes her head in amusement before addressing the Queen. "I give you my most sincere apologies for the disrespect that my friend here has shown you, your majesty." She lowers her head a little, causing the queen to let out a giggle. "Rise, child. There is no need to apologize. It is understandable that an outsider would find me to be quite the strange sight to behold." She nods in understanding as she looks at me next. "And you must be the one who wishes to help us in ridding these woods of those humans." She addresses me, getting me to nod in response. "Yup, I'm the one. How bad is the colony looking in terms of numbers?" I ask her, her expression immediately turning grim as I bring up the subject.

"Our numbers aren't even in the hundreds yet, child. Those two have always found ways to find our foraging workers and attack them for fun. If this situation persists, I fear that we may not survive the next winter." She sighs, looking sadly at the rest of her colony working to keep the nest safe and in working order. "I wish that there was something more that I could do to help, but as queen I have to remain in order for the nest to function. I am also unsure of what to do, due to my own inexperience." Nodding, I walk up to her and kneel down, so that we are facing each other eye to eye. "Listen, I have a plan that involves me borrowing about twenty of your workers for about fifteen minutes. They will not be harmed, and they will be back safely to report the results of my plan to you. That's all I ask, in return for my help. Sound good?" I ask the queen, who looks at me doubtfully, before Alex gently rubs her carapace. "He's pretty good when it comes to fighting, ma'am! If what he says is true, then he will be able to get those jerks to leave for good!" He tells her excitedly, causing her to sigh before she looks back to me. "Very well, human. I will signal for twenty workers to follow your commands." She replies, approving of my request. "Thanks, your majesty. I'll have driven those two out of here soon. Count on it." As I hear the clanking of steel followed by the annoyed cries of some Durant, I sigh as I know who's causing such a ruckus. "Kat, no! Stop throwing the eggs at the Durant!"


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

[Jay]

"Geez, Kat! You really shouldn't mess with their eggs like that. What if you broke one?" I lightly scold the playful Liepard, who simply gives me a mischievous look in return. We're currently travelling with our little entourage of Durant that the queen had entrusted us with, and Alex is right by our side as we try to find those two trouble making rich kids. However, I'm not too sure who the one that's causing the most trouble around here is at the moment…

"Jay, I implore you to understand the importance of allowing your Pokemon to have some fun." She cheekily grins at me, making me sigh in exasperation. "I understand that, but your fun can't come at the expense of the well being of other strangers. I may forgive you, and your teammates may forgive you, but others outside of our little group may not be as encompassing. Get me?" I tell her, causing her to nod. "I understand, Jay. I am sorry." She replies. Her apology sounds genuine, but I don't think that she quite understands that there are supposed to be certain rules that need to be set in order for a team, especially one as unorthodox as this to function. However, Chell is quick to back me up as she gets the feline's attention by tapping her barrel.

"Mister Jay's right, Kat. Pulling pranks on people who don' know you may end up hurting them more than you know. Mister Jay's puns don't really hurt anyone at all, so he can use those to make people laugh." She explains, getting Katrina to nod as she listens to what the little Water Type has to say. "Well, Chell does have a good point. Your eggs throwing got reported to the Queen, and from the way she was looking at me, I could tell that what you did really bugged her." I sigh, getting Katrina to look at me once again. "See, that's the thing with your pranks. You don't suffer the consequences, but everyone around you does. Especially me, Kat. As your trainer, I'm to be held responsible whenever you do something bad. It really hurts me to have to stand through constant ear chewing for things that I didn't even do, but it pains me even more to see you actively put yourself in danger." I sigh, which makes Katrina look at me in confusion. "What are you implying?" She asks, not too sure about what I mean. "You see, Dark Types like Liepard and Purrloin aren't all too accepted around humans. Quite the opposite, in fact. We're so biased towards the idea that Dark Types and Ghost Types are bad, that if enough complaints are filed by other humans towards you, for instance, I'm to give up my possession over you and I'm forced to get other people to euthanize you." I sigh, my heart growing painful and heavy as I bring up the topic.

"If you don't know what that is, euthanizing is the act of people putting a mix of sleeping medicine and deadly poison in you so you die once you fall asleep. It's pretty much a forced death, and I don't want to see it happen to any of you." I finish, the team looking at me in shock and horror as they realize just how dark we humans can be. "That's horrible!" Chell gasps, having not been familiar with how society works up until now. "That's how they treat Pokemon!? That's so wrong!" Alita yells angrily, while I sigh in response to her outburst. "But there's nothing I can do about it. People have long since treated themselves as the dominant species, unwilling to share the throne with any others. As such, they think that they are above consequences, that they can do whatever they want." I pause a little after that. "That's why…that's why I can't let you prank other people. If I let you, you'd die and I would never forgive myself for letting you." Katrina quickly slinks over to me, nuzzling her head into my free hand gently as she licks my fingers apologetically. "I had no idea, Jay. Forgive my carelessness, and for making you fret over my safety." She softly whispers, making me shake my head. "It's okay, Kat. You had no idea." I tell her, petting her in return. "Just make sure to watch yourself from now on, 'kay? Promise me." I tell her, to which she nods firmly. "I promise, Jay." She reassures me, getting my smile to resurface as she gives me her word.

Smirking, I decide to lighten the dark mood of what I had just said. "You'd better hold up on your end of the promise, okay? Or else…" I trail off, sporting a dark grin as I touch Katrina's head lightly to get her attention. "I'm not gonna pet ya when my hands are free." I finish, causing her to gasp in horror as she realizes what I am implying. "No! Anything but that! I implore you to reconsider, good sir!" She pleads with me, my grin growing cheeky. "Just don't prank anybody else, and I'll continue to lavish your soft fur with my hands." I tell her, causing her to nod frantically. "Yes, of course!" She quickly replies, to which I gently reach down and begin to caress her head with my hand, causing her to purr in delight as she once again feels the rush on endorphins due to my ministrations. "There. Doesn't that feel good?" I ask her, to which she nods. "Yes it does, Jay." She murmurs blissfully as she enjoys the petting, her ail swishing from side to side to show her appreciation of my hands.

"Heehee, Kat's making a rumbling noise!" Chell giggles, seeing the large and composed feline melt into putty upon feeling my touch to be a mite funny. "That's purring, and it's a cat's sign of telling others that she likes what she's feeling." I explain, stopping my petting of Katrina's head. "Why did you stop, Jay?" She pouts, which causes me to poke her nose lightly in response. "We can do this later tonight. We'll have all the time in the world for you to feel my hands work you troubles away, 'kay?" I smile at her, to which she gives me a smile of her own. "As long as you uphold your end of the bargain, I care not when you pamper me." She replies, getting Alita to groan in annoyance. "Could you not do that? It's really gross to see you two all touchy feely like that." She huffs, which makes me grab her and tuck her into my arm as she yelps in surprise. "Hey! What's the big idea!?" She yells, causing me to roll my eyes as I pet her in turn, making her unwillingly let out a series of cooing noises. "Since you're so jealous of Katrina getting all the affection, I decided to give you some, too." I tell her, smirking as she blushes. "Well, I don't need it!" She retorts, making me shake my head and smirk at her. "But you want it, and that's enough reason for me to do so." I shoot her weak argument down in a flash, causing her to blush as she looks away with a 'hmph'. "You idiot…" She mumbles, while Nesia looks at her in confusion. "We all like Master's touch, so why are you acting like you don't?" She asks, making Alita's face flush even further as she looks at Nesia with anger. "W-well, I don't like it!" She stutters, causing Chell to giggle as she looks at me. Meanwhile, Nesia just shakes her head. "I don't understand, Master. She clearly likes it, so why is she denying it?" She asks me, causing me to grin at her. "There's a term for that. We call people who act like Alita a tsundere." I tell her, getting her to nod as she saves that little bit of information in the back of her mind for later. "The hell does that mean, you idiot!?" Alita growls at me, nipping at my finger with her beak and causing me to wince. "Ow! Yeesh, you've got a short fuse." I mutter.

"Mister Jay, can't you see that you're acting like those Durant? You're starting to bug her." She jokes, causing me to laugh as well in response to her pun. "Well, I'm feeling kinda antsy myself right now. This plan isn't gonna be an easy one to pull off, ya know." I further the pun train, making Chell laugh as well. Meanwhile, Alita just groans in exasperation as we make jokes. "Urgh, stop it you two! No more puns!" She yells at us futility, causing Katrina to smile at the scene. Nesia just does her eyeroll, but her smile remains regardless. "Well, Ali. If you can't beak 'em, join 'em!" Chell makes another pun, much to Alita's chagrin, as we continue to try and find those two trainers. "No, damn it! Enough!" Alita screams out in rage, making me grin.

It doesn't take long for us to find the two rich bullies around the place. Finding them was really stupid simple: just follow the sounds of laughing, metal clanging and attacks being thrown and you'd find 'em. Sure enough, we see them doing what all rich asshat teenagers with power would do for fun. They're currently beating up some foraging Durant that were simply just minding their own business, kicking the poor ants without remorse as they laugh cruelly at the pain the Durant seem to be in. I shake my head as I watch the act of cruelty unfold. Apparently, not even all the cash in the world can buy a better personality. They must've used their own Pokemon to weaken them first, them just returning their slaves and harassing the downed Pokemon that are now unable to fight back. Still, the Durant seem to have lost pretty badly. I wonder what kind of Grass Type Pokemon those two used to render Durant, such vicious Pokemon with a type advantage so helpless. Nevertheless, I came here to beat these two at their own game, and that is exactly what I'm gonna do. Slipping out of sight behind a tree, I face Alex to tell him what to do next. "Hey, Alex. I'll need you and the Durant to hide for now. Wait until I whistle, them come out and surround them. Got it?" I ask him, to which he quickly nods and leads the Durant into the bushes, awaiting the signal.

Now that everything's in place, it's time to deal with the two assholes. Silently approaching them from behind, I quickly stop both of their fists from connecting with the already damaged shells of the Durant at their feet, allowing the poor worker ants enough time to crawl away into the safety of the bushes. They try their hardest to budge their fists, but my grip holds strong. As they watch their helpless prey vanish into the safety of the forest, their surprise soon morphs into anger, turning to me and addressing my sudden appearance with no shortage of prejudice. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing, moron! If you didn't notice, we're trying to have some fun here!" The first one snarled at me, the second rich guy quickly backing him. "Yeah! Back off, ya poor loser!" He spits at me as they both quickly eye me and my team over in disgust. "And why the hell were you beating up that Durant to have fun, eh? Couldn't you find a nice girl to have fun with instead?" I immediately taunt them, causing their faces to flush in embarrassment as they're quickly reminded of their current status. "What's it matter to you then, huh!?" The second one spits angrily at me as I shrug. "Meh. It's just that you could be actually doing something productive with your time, but I'm not one to judge…" I smirk, making Alita and Katrina snicker at my seemingly innocent comment.

This, of course, easily pisses the dudes off, as they quickly draw their shiny Premier Balls from their belts. "That's it, you motherfucker! We're gonna kick your ass, and we're gonna do it now!" The first one yells challengingly at me, getting a grin out of me in response. "Well, if that's how you wanna play it. Let's make a deal, shall we? The rules are simple: I win, you two never show your faces around here again." I propose, making the rich bullies to smirk menacingly at me. "But if we win, we get your Liepard." He suggests, taking a look at Katrina to seemingly admire her fur from afar. My smile remains, but I conceal my hatred for the two deep inside. Of course the ones with money would want the beautiful stuff. "Sounds good." I reply, looking at the team and smirking. "So, who wants to kick some ass this time?" I ask, Chell quickly raising her paw in the air and waving it to gain my attention. "Ooh, ooh, ooh! Pick me! Pick me!" She cries, eagerly jumping up and down to try and convince me that I should choose her to fight this one. Raising an eyebrow, I crouch to meet her gaze. "Are you sure about this, kid? Last time I checked, you don't exactly have the moves to take on Grass Type Pokemon. Besides, these dudes are tough." I tell her, concerned for her well being if she were to go up against Pokemon that had the typing advantage over her. Our opponents aren't going to be the most forgiving of chaps either, so I honestly am worried about her if she actually goes for it.

"Come on, Mister Jay! Let me fight this one, please?" She begs me, quickly using her deadly Puppy Dog Eyes attack to instantly shatter any logical argument that I had planned against her request. "Okay, fine…" I sigh, letting Chell giggle with glee as she steps out onto the field and draws her scalchop. How am I so weak to her cuteness!? "Yay! Thanks, Mister Jay!" Chell replies, causing me to nod in response to her gratitude. Meanwhile, I also see Nesia taking a spot on the field next to Chell. "You wanna fight too, Ness?" I ask the Snivy, to which she nods and immediately turns around to face the opposing side, her eyes narrowed as she stares the two bullies down. However, she does spare Chell a friendly smile, to which the Oshawott gladly reciprocates. "Alright, you two! Not only are we fighting for the Durant, we're also fighting for Katrina! Give it your all, and don't lose!" I cheer them on, Chell and Nesia looking back and nodding. "Seriously? That's what you're gonna use to battle us? Get ready to lose!" The first bully smirks as he and his friend both toss out their Premiere Balls, releasing a Petilil and a Cottonee in a flash of light. The Petilil immediately looks quite hesitant to battle, as she looks quite scared of Chell and Nesia. The Cottonee doesn't seem all that interested in battling, either, as it's just floating in the air with a lax expression. Upon seeing her fellow Pokemon, the Petilil quickly seeks refuge next to the Cottonee and hides underneath its shadow. The Cottonee doesn't really seem to care about the Petilil, but it doesn't float off with the light breeze and stays over the frightened Grass Type. So, the Cottonee seems to really care about the Petilil, huh.

However, this doesn't stop the two rich assholes from issuing commands to the two unwilling Pokemon. "Hey! The hell do you two think you're doing! Fight, you dumbass animals!" The first one orders the two Pokemon around, the Cottonee giving a small sigh as it readies itself for battle, the Petilil following suit. "Use Stun Spore, Petilil!" The second kid orders the small Grass Type, who responds by looking at her trainer with a pleading expression. "But Master, I don't want to hurt them!" She begs the rich jerk, hoping against all hope that he would call off the fight. However, the kid is oblivious to her request, snarling angrily at the hapless Petilil. "Do it now, you stupid idiot!" He orders her again, the Petilil finally giving in to her trainer's commands. "I'm sorry!" She cries, before spraying a cloud of yellow, paralyzing spores that slowly edge towards Chell and Nesia. "Use Cotton Spore, Cottonee!" The first one commands, making the Cottonee release a bunch of light, fluffy cotton balls that whiz past the cloud of Stun Spore quickly and fly towards the two starter Pokemon. The kids aren't that dumb, I'll give 'em that. By passing the Cotton Spore through the Stun Spore, the balls of cotton not only slow down the opposition, but they also have a chance to stun whatever it hits due to the spores latching onto the sticky surface of the cotton balls. If that stuff latches onto Chell, then she won't be able to cut through it. Nesia, on the other hand, won't be affected by the cotton as much, due to her being a Grass Type at all.

Giving the idea some thought, I quickly formulate my plan. "Chell! Get behind Ness! Use Vine Whip to get rid of the cotton!" I quickly command them, Chell taking a defensive stance behind Nesia as the Snivy uses her vines to whip away the cotton, dispersing the balls of fluff into harmless bits. However, there's still the problem of the Stun Spore Cloud, edging closer towards the two. "Chell, use Water Pulse on the ground in front of the Stun Spore!" I quickly issue the command to Chell, who immediately forms a ball of pressurized water in her paws and flings it at the ground. Upon impact, the aqueous sphere explodes, making a small blast that pushes the spores away from the general direction of the two. However, what I fail to realize during the detonation of the Water Pulse is that some of the spores still end up flying towards Nesia, sticking to her scales. However, by some stroke of luck, she doesn't end up getting paralyzed by the stray spores. Sighing in relief, I make a mental note to never rely on Water Pulse when it comes to dispersing aerosol related attacks. In order to get rid of the spore based attacks quickly, I'll have to take out the Petilil first.

Quick to act on the surprise of the two rich kids that found their strategy to be ineffective, I quickly use their pause to my advantage. "Ness, use Vine Whip to pull in the Petilil!" I order, Nesia quickly lashing out with her appendages and wrapping them around the Petilil. The Grass Type lets out a startled yelp as she's suddenly targeted out of nowhere, struggling to free herself from the vines. However, Nesia's grip on the Pokemon remains firm, dragging the hapless Pokemon closer towards her. The rich morons don't know how to get the Petilil out of this bind, as they have seemingly overestimated the power of their own Pokemon. "Break the vines, you stupid fuck!" The first kid roars angrily at the poor Petilil, completely ignoring the fact that his own Cottonee can use Razor Leaf. The Cottonee knows that it can, though. "Not so fast!" It cries out, launching a gaggle of sharp leaves at the vines that have trapped its companion. Nesia hisses in pain at the sudden sting of having an attack launched at her vines, to which she lets go. Her vines unravel as they travel back to her sides, letting go of the Petilil in the process and allowing her to skip back to the other side of the field. "Ness! Are you okay?" Chell asks the grass snake, Nesia nodding in response as not to worry Chell too much. "You can do this, you two! Kick their asses!" Alita cheers heatedly, making Katrina smile at her winged friend as she observes the two from the sidelines. Damn it. The Cottonee's care for the Petilil may be endearing, but it isn't going to make this fight easy at all.

Now that the two rich jackasses think that they have the upper hand again, they completely forgo the option of using any status effect moves and just go straight in for the kill. "Petilil, use Magical Leaf!" The second kid commands , causing Petilil to launch a bunch of leaves coated in a pink aura, homing in towards it's intended targets with haste. "Use Razor Leaf, Cottonee!" The first kid orders the Cottonee to launch its own attack, adding some more leaves to the mix as they all whiz towards Nesia, who's still in front of Chell. Shit. Magical Leaf is a move that you can't dodge, no matter the speed of your Pokemon. However, Nesia may be able to use her vines to knock the leaves back. But first, they're gonna have to separate to make sure the other doesn't get hit by any leaves that manage to slip past their attempts to block. Chell does manage to move out of the way just fine, but Nesia suddenly finds herself overwhelmed by a stinging sensation, rendering her unable to move. She tries to move herself out of the way of the incoming barrage of leaves, but she can't get her body to budge at all. As she grits her teeth in frustration, I finally see what's holding her down. Sparks are running across her small form, indicating that the effects of paralysis have struck her dead on. So she was paralyzed by the spores that got to her! I start to panic internally, as I hadn't been expecting this turn of events at all. Normally Nesia can move like the wind itself, but with the added effect of paralysis, she's basically a sitting duck, waiting for the leaves to connect with her slender frame. Snivy aren't known to be the most resilient of Pokemon either, so she just might go down with this single attack. All I can do is hope for the best.

However, Chell has other ideas. "Hold on, Ness!" She yells, quickly rushing in front of the helpless Snivy and raising her scalchop to block the attacks head on. I quickly see what she's trying to do, and I try to stop her from doing so. "Chell, don't!" I call out to the Oshawott, desperately trying to warn her of the danger she's placed herself into. "Chell! Are you crazy!? There's no way you can stop all of that!" Alita cries as she tries to stop Chell from acting so recklessly, but it's already far too late. Nesia is still under the effects of paralysis, and can only watch with wide eyes as Chell raises her weapon and prepares to slash at the storm of leaves that are threatening to cut the both of them into tiny pieces. "Don't do this, Chell." Nesia pleads with her friend, trying desperately to get her out of harm's way. However, the both of us can already see that Chell has made up her mind, holding her shell with both hands as she prepares to slice up the leaves. "No! There's no way I'm letting you get hurt, Ness! I'm your friend, and I'll make sure to protect you!" Chell retorts, standing her ground as the leaves approach. She doesn't try to flee from the attack, only letting out a guttural scream of rage and determination to protect Nesia as she slashes relentlessly. Again and again, her blade cuts down the leaves that it hits. But for each one that she slices away, two more get past her scalchop and cuts her body. She doesn't let up, continuing to slash and chop and cut at the seemingly endless storm of leaves as they cut her all over, each one dealing more damage and leaving a shallow cut that leaks blood. Even through the thick leafy veil, I can see her getting quite literally torn to pieces, which seems to cut a large wound across my heart as well. The pain is sharp and stinging, a violent maelstrom of guilt and helplessness stirring within my soul as I can only watch my friend get hammered by the combined attacks.

When the barrage of leaves finally fades away, I can barely make out Chell's form, her white fur now slathered in a deep red. She's tired, her legs shaking and her stance wobbly as she struggles to stand. Her breath is shaky, and her scalchop seems to just be clinging on to her paw, threatening to fall from her weak grasp at any moment. However, I can still see the steely determination to protect her friends, shining brightly in her eyes. "Chell! You still there!?" Alita cries, tears threatening to spill from her eyes as she looks at the barely recognizable form of the cheerful little Oshawott. Nesia is also seemingly on the verge of tears, looking at her severely wounded friend that risked her own well being to protect her.

The two rich assholes are soaking up the sight with glee, though. Apparently money makes the heart go cold. "Ha! That's all ya got? That was some big talk, for a weak chump and his weak Pokemon!" The first kid smirks, pointing a finger at Chell as he orders his Cottonee to deliver the finishing blow. "End this, Cottonee! Use Razor Leaf on the Oshawott!" He cackles gleefully, the Cottonee launching another bout of sharp leaves to finish off Chell. "Chell! Don't give up, ya hear! You can do this!" I shout, Chell's gaze only hardening as she faces the attack head on. "I will protect my friends!" Chell yells, holding her blade in front of her as her small form suddenly begins to glow white. As the leaves hurtle towards her, I see her now holding not one, but two longer blades that are glowing a sickly green as she begins to cut away at the leaves in front of her, her body growing larger and taller as she continues to cut away at the leaves that had the audacity to try and cause her friends harm. I am taken aback by the sudden light, but my grin simply grows wider. "Woah! Is she-" Alita gasps, causing me to nod while Katrina smiles. "Yup, she is! She's evolving!" I laugh in victory, seeing all the leaves get cut away by Chell's two blades. Nesia is left speechless as her friend evolves, staring in awe at the transformation taking place. Upon seeing the attack get blocked completely, the two bullies do a double take. "What the hell!?" One of them shouts in surprise, seeing Chell's new form for himself. Drinking in the sight, I see that my friend is no longer an Oshawott, but is now a stronger, dual blade wielding Dewott. She's much taller now, at double her original height, and she now looks more catlike, as her ears are now pointier. Her whiskers complete the look nicely, as her light blue fur and her dark blue tufts around her waist make her look more imposing. As she holds her blades closely in a cross position, I can tell that she's only getting started. "Let's do this!" Chell grins, ready for a fight.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

[Jay]

Chell's evolution may have startled the bullies for a bit, but they're still a mite too dumb to throw in the towel. "You think this'll change anything!? We're still gonna win, and your dumb Pokemon evolving isn't gonna change that!" The first rich bully crows, obviously not too deterred from trying to take down my Pokemon. "Go, Cottonee! Use Razor Leaf!" He commands his Pokemon, who flings out a bunch of sharp leaves at the Dewott in an attempt to cut her down. "Use Magical Leaf, Petilil!" The second kid quickly backs his friend up and orders his Petilil to summon forth another cluster of leaves shrouded in a pink aura, throwing them at Chell to add to the attack. However, they don't seem to notice that since evolving, Chell's picked up some new tricks. Quickly taking a deep breath, Chell then focuses on the barrage of leaves, letting loose a beam of icy cold energy that blasts through the leaves, freezing them solid in midair and cancelling out all the momentum they had a second ago. Although it doesn't reach all that far, it does its intended job. The frozen leaves then fall to the ground, breaking apart like glass on impact. A few of the leaves escape the icy fate of their brethren, but Chell quickly cuts them to pieces before they can touch herself or the Snivy behind her, using her scalchops to slice the leaves apart.

So she managed to pick up both Ice Beam and Fury Cutter!? That suddenly makes this fight all the more easy for me, and all them more frustrating for my opposition. Needless to say, the two bullies are less than pleased with the sudden lack of advantageousness of the situation. "Aw, crap! This doesn't look good, dude!" The second one starts to look a little scared, while the other one punches the second guy across the face. "Calm down, damn it! We can still beat this clown!" He growls, although he doesn't even look that sure of what he just said. "Yeah! Kick their asses, Chell!" Alita cheers, Chell quickly looking back and throwing a smirk our way, making me give her a thumbs-up in response. Nesia, now able to move again, walks up next to Chell and looks to her in gratitude. "Thanks." She tells the Dewott, who nods as she readies her scalchops to fight. "No biggie. Now, let's finish this!" She replies, to which Nesia nods and readies her vines.

She's still not gonna be able to reach the two opposing Pokemon, as both Petilil and Cottonee are prone to running away from fights. However, she's got a move that can change all that, and I know just who she should target first. "Use Water Pulse, Chell! Stun the Petilil!" I tell her what to do next, Chell responding by quickly forming a sphere of water in her paw and lobbing it right at the Petilil, the ball of water hurtling towards the small Bulb Pokemon. Terrified, the small Grass Type attempts to escape the attack by running away from the ball of water. She manages to evade the ball itself, but is still caught in the resulting blast of pressurized water. As a result, she ends up dazed from the force of the explosion, rendering her useless for the opposing side. Now that she's unable to defend herself or launch another status effect move, I decide to send Chell in for the finishing blow. "Now, use Fury Cutter!" I command, Chell quickly running up to the stunned Petilil with her blades at the ready, glowing that sickly green color as she closes the gap between herself and the target.

However, the first bully doesn't seem all too keen on losing just yet. "I don't think so! Cottonee, use Razor Leaf on the Dewott!" He orders, the small ball of fluff readying another barrage of leaves to throw at the attacking Dewott in an attempt to save its partner. However, I don't forget the Cottonee this time. "Ness, grab onto the Cottonee with Vine Whip, and drag it in for a close range Leaf Blade!" I blurt out the order, Nesia instead opting to quickly form and throw out a bunch of sharp leaves that encircle the unsuspecting Cottonee, rendering it helpless within the tornado of leaves. Now helpless, the Cottonee tries to free itself of the pull of the tornado, but to no avail as Nesia's attack holds. As the Petilil finally recovers from the stun of the Water Pulse, it immediately gets sliced into by Chell's dual blades, sending it reeling as Chell doesn't let up with her assault. The Dewott quickly deals out slash after slash, the Petilil quickly fainting from all the super effective hits. Meanwhile, Nesia curls up into a wheel and retracts her vines after a spinning leap into the air, effectively reeling in the Cottonee and slamming into it with her spinning energy charged tail. The combined forces knock out the unfortunate Cottonee, rendering it unable to continue as it smashes head first into the ground. It leaves a small crater as it connects with the dirt, allowing me to see the damage that Nesia can end up doing as I wince. Man, that must've hurt…

As the fight comes to a close, Chell and Nesia stand side by side in triumph as they look at their defeated foes. "We did it, Ness!" Chell smiles, as Nesia returns the gesture with a smile of her own. However, the win is quickly interrupted by the Snivy's body suddenly glowing a bright white. Chell is forced to shield her eyes from the light, since she is the one closest to the evolving Pokemon. As I close my own eyes, I can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment as I quickly catch onto what is happening to Nesia. The light quickly fades, leaving in place of my Snivy a much larger, taller Grass Snake Pokemon. As Nesia lifts her head in an arrogant manner, I can see that her tail leaf now looks larger, as well as her color scheme that now looks more refined and elegant. Yup, she's a Servine now. As they both return to me, I quickly pat the both of them on the head. "Great job out there, you two! I'm so proud of the both of you." I grin, Chell smiling due to the feeling my hand on her head, while Nesia just smiles as she lets me pet her. As I see the significant changes to their personalities, I sigh. I should have been expecting this, as certain traits that are universal to the species' evolutionary line are amplified due to the energy rush of evolving, but still…

"Thanks, Mister Jay." Chell responds in a calm and collected manner, her tone much less emotional than from when she was an Oshawott as she sheathes her scalchops. Meanwhile, Nesia's grin just remains, making her seem quite sure of herself. "Not a problem." She replies, looking more confident in herself now. Well, the evolution doesn't seem to have affected Nesia's personality for the worse. Quite the contrary, in fact. For now though, I think that we should finish what we started here before moving on. Taking a look at the two rich bullies, I can see that they're currently in the middle of berating their own Pokemon for the loss they suffered. "Are you serious!? You fucking stupid animals! How the hell could you lose to someone like that!?" The first one is screaming at the knocked out Cottonee and Petilil, seemingly not factoring in that they are unconscious as he yells and stomps his foot angrily at them. I can't help but feel bad for those two Pokemon, being under the ownership of such irresponsible people. It's just too bad that the rich ones are usually the spoiled ones. I'm not all too concerned for the well being of the rich kids, I'm just more worried that those two Pokemon will probably end up getting kicked around a lot. However, the rich kids don't seem to be all that smart, so here is something I can do to help them out…

"Hey, dumbasses!" I walk up to them, getting their attention as I approach. "What the hell do you want? The first one seethes, not looking too happy about his most recent loss. "Well, if you find your Pokemon useless, why don't you just throw 'em away? You could just buy more, and none of your friends will end up buying them off your hands either, so why not?" I suggest, the bullies thinking it over before nodding in agreement. "Yeah, you're right! Who needs these weaklings when we could buy something stronger?" The second one nods to his friend, who also seems to be giving the idea some thought. After a few seconds, he takes his Premiere Ball and smashes it onto the ground, freeing his Cottonee from his command. The second one also destroys his Pokeball by stamping on it after placing it on the ground, freeing the Petilil from his grasp as well. As the two Pokemon remain on the dirt besides their crushed Pokeballs, I smirk as I stare at the two rich assholes. "Now that you've done that, it's time that you uphold your end of the bargain. You will leave, and never come back here again." I calmly tell them, causing the two to stare at me like I had grown a second head, before laughing out loud.

"And what makes you think we would actually stick to our end of the deal, moron!? Those two aren't the only Pokemon we have!" The first one grins as he and his friend both reach for another Premiere Ball on their belts. However, I manage to get out my threat before they do. "Are you sure you want to do that?" I raise an eyebrow at them, my smirk remaining as they look at me in confusion. "What are you talking about? We can beat you easily with these!" The second kid retorts, to which I respond by whistling loudly. The second I do so, all the Durant and Alex, who had been hiding in the bushes around the two, surround them in a flash, causing them to begin to look nervous as they look at the precarious situation that I've put them in. "You were saying?" I grin wolfishly, causing them to take a step back from me in fear as they try to find an escape route from the swarm of angry looking Durant. Yep, the intimidation tactic's working a damn treat.

"You can't do this to us! Do you know who our parents are!? When they find out about this…" The first kid warns, pointing a shaky finger at me as he tries his best to look threatening. But when you're a small, shaking mouse trying to scare off a cat, it usually isn't going to do much in your favor. Sighing, I gesture to the Durant. "Do you think they care about how much money goes up your asses? Sure, you may have powerful parents, but they sure as hell can't save you from these jaws." I reply, one of the Durant slamming its mandibles together in a metallic clang that shakes the two down to their bones. They let out a frightened yelp as they seem to shrink even smaller, allowing me to feel no shortage of satisfaction upon seeing such arrogant asshats become such wimpy little bitches. "If you idiots don't want to get torn to pieces, I highly suggest that you leave. Now." I warn them, my grin unwavering as they look at the swarm of deadly Ant Pokemon fearfully. Shrugging, I add a little more to the threat, just to hit the idea home. "Or you could stay and get chomped into bite sized pieces. Or do the Durant cut off your arms and legs to immobilize you and keep you alive in their nests to feed their babies? I don't remember…" I put a hand to my chin, faking deep thought as the two let out a girlish scream and make a break for it, jumping over the vicious metallic ants and running off towards Striaton City in a panic. This just goes to show that people like that just rely on their money to get their way. Without it, they're pretty much helpless.

As they finally buzz off, Alex shoots one last sentence their way. "Don't ever come back, jerks!" He yells at them, looking to me with a huge smile that threatens to break his face. "Dude, you did it! You chased them off!" He cheers, the Durant looking equal parts disgusted and happy that I had managed to get them out of my territory. The team also looks a little grossed out, Chell and Katrina seemingly hiding it better than the rest of the team. However, Alita is showing blatant disgust towards what I had just described, while Nesia seems to be equally disgusted and fascinated. "Do they really do that?" She asks me, to which I shake my head. "Nah, I just made that one up. Durant don't even eat meat, they eat the leaves off of trees. That's why you'll see a bunch of fallen tree branches around the area where a Durant colony is." I explain, causing Alita to visibly relax as she lets out a sigh of relief. "Whew!" She sighs, while I grin as I look towards Chell. "That really ruffled her feathers, eh kiddo?" I joke, causing Katrina to giggle as Chell remains stoic, but still cracks a little smile regardless. As Nesia rolls her eyes, Alita groans out loud as she flies up to give my head a good smack. "Really!? You just had to do that now?" She deadpans, while I shrug in response. "Why not now? Puns are great." I reply, causing her to shake her head as she looks at me angrily. "No they're not, you idiot! Quit it!" She yells in response, to which I smile cheekily at her.

As she continues to disapprove of my sense of humor, Alex taps my arm to get my attention. "We should tell the queen that you did it, Jay! She's gonna be so happy!" He cries in excitement as I nod in response, a smile on my own face as well. "Alright then, dude. Lead the way. I'll be with ya in a bit, I just need to take care of something." I tell him, getting him to grin widely and nod as he marches back towards the Durant nest with a smile on his face, the Durant following behind. However, the team and I stay behind to take a look at the unconscious Cottonee and Petilil that I had a hand in conking out. Feeling pretty bad for the two helpless Pokemon, I quickly cradle them in my arms and follow Alex and the Durant, the group not having wandered too far from my line of sight. As we rejoin the group, Alita sees the two knocked out Pokemon in my arms, and decides to ask me about it. "What are you doing with those two? Didn't they try to beat the crap out of us a couple minutes ago?" She asks me, questioning my sense of reasoning. "Well, they're pretty helpless now. They won't be able to defend themselves from any wild Pokemon that decide to make a meal out of them, nor will they be able to hurt us. Besides, the two assholes we scared off were making those two fight against their will. The Petilil in particular wasn't looking for a fight at all. She was being forced to use attacks." I reply to her question, gesturing to the two resting Pokemon in my arms. "These guys were basically abandoned by their trainers and left to die out there, and I'm not about to let that happen." I finish, looking at the two Pokemon with concern. Alita lands on my shoulder, allowing me to nuzzle her body with my cheek as she blushes. "What are you doing?" She asks, although I can feel her nuzzling me back. "Giving you attention." I grin at her, to which she blushes even brighter. "I don't really like it…" She huffs, getting me to grin cheekily at her. "Of course you don't. Yeah, that's definitely it." I sarcastically remark, causing her to turn away with a 'hmph'. "I hate you, you idiot." She mumbles, while I just smile at her. "And I like you too, Ali." I chuckle.

Suddenly, I feel Nesia tugging on my hair with her vines. "Ow!" I wince, rubbing my hair with my free hand. "Next time you want to ask for something, you could just call me, Ness." I tell her, to which she seemingly ignores. "Be more respectful to Jay, Ness!" Chell snaps at the Servine, who shrugs in return as she voices her request. "I want to run about in the trees, Jay." She asks me, to which I nod. "Sure thing, Ness. Just don't wander too far off from the group, 'kay? I really don't want to lose you." I reply, causing her to curtly nod as she uses her vines to latch onto the branch of a tree, swinging off into the thick foliage to no doubt burn off some of that energy from her evolution. It appears that her evolution has made her more confident and assertive. She'd never pull on my hair like that otherwise. Meanwhile, Chell just looks quite irked that Nesia had seemingly disrespected me like that. It seems that her evolution is causing her to be more formal and reserved, as she would have done or said something silly by now. It really makes me wonder if she's still the same Pokemon that I had met a few days ago. "They certainly have undergone some changes, haven't they?" Katrina speaks up, causing me to nod in response to her comment. "Yeah. It's really weird, to be honest with you. They've changed in their personalities, but then again some things about them haven't changed a bit. Chell still likes my puns, while Nesia is still quite reserved and curious." I add, sighing as I quickly use my hand to grab Katrina's tail. "And it seems that you've grown much sneakier after your evolution, eh Kat?" I raise an eyebrow as she pouts, retracting her soft, slender tail. "You just cannot let me have any fun, can you Jay?" She huffs, causing me to reach down and scratch her chin in response. She quickly begins to purr in delight as I stroke her lower jaw, my fingers working their magic as her tail begins to swish around a little faster. "Well, you can't stay mad for long, if my fingers have anything to say about that." I throw her a cheeky grin as she smirks playfully my way. "That is because you know my weaknesses, Jay! I must ask that you stop touching me this instant!" She purrs in protest, but her dreamy smile says otherwise. "Calm down, Kat. You still look quite beautiful, even when you enjoy yourself." I tell her, seeing that faint blush creep onto her cheeks again. "Surely that is not the case, good sir! I am not as beautiful as you say!" She shrugs off the compliment, but I shake my head. "Yes, you are! You just don't think so." I smile, causing her to let out a dainty giggle.

As I banter with the graceful Liepard, I can't help but notice that Chell is being quite conservative with her speech, not talking to me at all as she calmly surveys the surrounding area for any and all threats. I'm honestly touched that she'd go to such lengths to protect me, but I personally think that she should try and loosen up a little. There's nothing wrong with having a little fun, and being so uptight all the time isn't good for you. She's quite conflicted anyways, as the look on her face clearly tells me that she has things that she wants to say to me. However, her respect towards me is seemingly stopping her from doing so. I'm about to point that out to the diligent Dewott, but Alex quickly gets my attention by calling my name. "Hey, Jay! We're at the colony now. Come on, let's go! I can't wait to tell the queen about how you kicked those bullies outta here!" He grins widely, quickly crawling after the Durant guards to tell the queen the good news. As soon as Nesia reappears, I call her down and we crawl after the excited kid, but not before I quickly tuck the Petilil and the Cottonee into the hat part of my hoodie, as to not accidentally drop them during my crawling through the tunnels.

As I crawl, I quickly decide to ask the team about the two potentially new additions to the team to pass some of the time. "So, I'm thinking about letting the two Grass Types join us. What do you think?" I ask the team, Katrina quickly voicing her opinion on the matter. "I do not mind their presence." She replies, causing Chell to reaffirm her support in my decision. "If it's your choice, Jay, then I'm fine with it." Nesia doesn't really seem to mind the new additions. "As long as they don't affect us in any way, I don't see why not." Alita also seems to have no qualms in letting them join, either. "Well, if they agree, then I do too." Hearing all this positive feedback, I confirm the decision. "Okay, then. It's decided." I nod, finally reaching the Durant Queen's chambers as the tunnel ends. Finally being able to get up and stretch my back, I see Alex happily chatting with the Durant Queen, telling her in detail about how I had chased the rich bullies out of the Route. "…And then those two ran off like they had seen a ghost!" He laughs, causing the queen to giggle happily as she notices my entry into her domain once again.

"Hello again, Jay. Judging by Alex's description of your endeavors, I presume you were successful in getting rid of those two trainers?" She asks me, to which I nod in reply. 'Indeed I was, Your Highness. Alex sure gets the news across fast, huh?" I reply, to which she giggles. "Indeed he is. Although, I am quite offended that you made up such lies about our race." She looks at me wryly, while I shrug with a sheepish grin. "Well, it got the job done, right? It's only a little lie that holds no weight, so no harm done there." I tell her, causing her to nod in understanding. "All joking aside, I thank you for all that you have done for our colony." She gives me her gratitude, to which I shake my head in response. "Nah, it's not me you should be thanking. Thank my team. They're the ones that beat the crap out of their Pokemon to begin with. Without 'em, my plan couldn't have worked." I reply, gesturing to Chell and Nesia in particular. Smiling, the queen nods approvingly of my attitude. "Now I see why your Pokemon willingly follow you. You are quite the modest trainer, and keep them outside of their Pokeballs at all times. Truly, you are quite the kind person." I end up blushing from her gratuitous praise. "Well, I try to be." However, Katrina is quick to support the queen's description of me. "Indeed, Your Majesty. Jay is quite the competent and kind trainer. He tries his best to help all of us, no matter how much effort it takes him." She adds, to which Chell nods in agreement. "Yeah, he's not that bad. I'll admit that much." Alita says as well, as Nesia nods to show her agreement on the matter. This causes the queen to smile as she looks at me again. "As thanks for ensuring the future of our colony, I feel obligated to give you this." She speaks up, beckoning one of her workers to approach her. When he arrives at her side, she gives him a bunch of what appear to be glowing crystals, glowing in different colors that the worker puts in a woven leaf basket. Alex looks quite surprised at the stones, which gets my attention as I grow interested in the gems as well. When the worker approaches me and gives me the basket of gems, I can now clearly see what they are.

"Woah. Are you sure you want to give me these? You could use them to bolster the growth of your hatchlings, you know." I tell her, not sure why she would so willingly provide me with items this valuable. In response to my worries, she chuckles. "Fear not, young trainer. We have plenty of earth to excavate before we are finished expanding the colony, and we already have plenty of natural food grown from the leaves of the forest to feed our young with." She reassures me as I take the basket and hold it so the team can take a better look at the reward that the Durant Queen has so kindly provided me with. "What are those? Glowing rocks?" Alita blurts out, causing me to sigh at her ignorance. "These are Evolution Stones, Ali. They allow certain Pokemon that come into contact with these stones to evolve immediately, due to the massive levels of power within them." I reply, Chell and Nesia staring at the stones in wonder and Katrina takes a Fire Stone and twirls it between her tail. "They are quite beautiful." She comments, staring at the stone in her tail's grasp with a look of wonder. "Thank you, Your Highness. This is quite the generous reward." I thank the queen, while she giggles at my formality. "There is no need for thanks, trainer. Now, you can exit the colony and continue your travels." She replies, to which I nod and beckon for the team to leave the area. As I get ready to crawl through the tunnel, the queen makes one last offer. "You are free to return to this place anytime you'd like, Jay." She says, causing me to smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll make sure to pay you a visit." I reassure her, bidding her farewell as I leave the colony of Durant, Alex giving me one last wave goodbye as he sits next to the Durant Queen.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

[Jay]

It hasn't been long since I had left the Durant Colony behind, the sun once again shining down on me and my team of Pokemon as we continue to walk along the path of Route 3. Nesia had once again decided to move around more, now undoubtedly slithering in the trees around us as I can periodically hear the rustling of leaves in the trees. The rustling sometimes descends into the bushes and grass below the trees, followed by the agonizing shrieks of an unfortunate Patrat and the whipping sound of vines whooshing through the warm air. Well, at least she's getting some practice, with all the Patrat here to whip around and all…

Now that we have a moment of peace, I can focus on my thoughts. However, I don't seem to really have much going on inside my head at the moment, so I just tune in to the conversations of the team. Katrina is just walking beside me, having a conversation with Alita as she remains on my shoulder. "That queen was pretty nice, wasn't she?" Alita speaks up, Katrina nodding as she slinks along next to me. Chell isn't really up to much of anything at the moment, simply opting to scour the trees and bushes for threats. However, her paw suddenly shoots to her scalchops, smacking away the devious tail of the Liepard that had attempted to steal from her. Katrina winces in slight pain as her tail withdraws, bringing it close to her face and licking it with her tongue. "You've been quite attentive ever since you evolved, haven't you Chell?" Katrina muses, looking a little irked that the Dewott had so easily noticed her scheme. "Well, it wasn't that hard to notice." Chell manages a small smile in response to Katrina's remark, shooting back with a remark of her own. They're both sporting smiles nevertheless, and that happiness quickly spreads to me.

Katrina pouts playfully as she slinks next to Chell now, her body rubbing against hers to get her attention. Chell doesn't really respond physically to Katrina's body language, simply keeping her stoic face as she continues to look around. Meanwhile, I decide to nuzzle Alita with my cheek again, the sleeping Cottonee and Petilil having taken up the space in my arms for now I didn't bring along any healing potions, so, they'll have to get some rest in order to heal up for now. She's initially startled by my sudden action, but she isn't too put off by my behavior this time, actually cooing a little in reply to my ministrations. "Well, that's a sound I haven't heard much of lately." I grin at the Tranquill, said bird quickly blushing slightly as she nuzzles me in turn, her soft feathers brushing against my neck and cheek and letting me breathe in her scent. Oddly enough, she smells like the cool, wet air of a rainy day. It's most likely due to her always having a habit of flying up into the air. She leans her head in to speak to me though, her beak right next to my ear. "I…kinda liked that, Jay." She mumbles, loud enough for only me to hear as Chell and Katrina are currently distracted for now. "You did, huh?" I ask, honestly surprised that she had admitted to liking my touch willingly. This behavior from her isn't normal, by any means. I quickly turn to look at her with a shocked expression, causing her to look at me weirdly in return. "What?" She asks me, clearly not getting why I was shocked.

"Who are you, and what have you done with the real Alita?" I ask her in an exaggerated manner immediately, causing her to sigh. "It's still me, you idiot." She replies, giggling at my humor for the first time. Her laugh is quite nice to listen to, and it is quite the unexpected deviation from her usual tomboyish attitude. "Your laugh sounds nice." I tell her, causing her to blush. "…You really think so?" She asks, to which I nuzzle her again. "Yeah, I do." I tell her honestly once more, as she shakes her head. "I don't think so, Jay." She tells me, causing me to look at her with a raised eyebrow in return. "But I think so! Besides, stopping the world from hearing such an amazing laugh is quite the crime, Ali." I reply, exaggerating my voice to attempt and get another giggle out of her. Sure enough, she caves in quickly due to my poor acting skills, quickly laughing in embarrassment once again for me to hear. "You're such an idiot, Jay." She smiles at me, to which I return with a wide grin. "But I'm your idiot, Ali." I shoot back at her, to which she lightly smacks me over the head with her wing as her blush remains. "You're so annoying!" She huffs, although her smile really doesn't help to accentuate her point.

As we talk, Katrina continues to egg Chell on after having observed her actions for a while. "Chell, you clearly want to say something. What is it that you wish to say?" The feline asks her, to which Chell initially hesitates before replying. "…I want to train with my scalchops more, but I'm afraid that it'll ruin Jay's plans." She replies, causing me to raise an eyebrow as I listen in to the conversation. "Just ask him, then. I'm positive that he won't mind all that much. I want to get better at battling as well, you know." She encourages her, causing Chell to look my way with a nervous expression, before talking herself out of it and turning to look at Katrina again. "I don't think I can do it, Kat." She mutters, the Liepard's face quickly growing annoyed as she nudges Chell with her tail again. "If you refuse to say it, then I will." She replies, quickly approaching me and tapping my arm with her tail in order to get my attention. Pretending that I hadn't just listened in to the entire thing, I look at the Liepard with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah? What is it, Kat?" I ask her, the Liepard taking one last look at Chell's mortified face before telling me what she had to say. "I was thinking about stopping soon. I wish to train some more before night time." She tells me, to which I nod in agreement. "Sounds good. I think I see another small clearing up ahead." I squint, seeing another patch of grass surrounded by trees. "We'll stop there for the night, and continue on our trek tomorrow." I suggest to the team, Katrina nodding as she slinks alongside me. "Okay! It's time for some training, to kick some ass!" Alita cheers, quickly flying off towards the area to find a suitable tree cluster to throw her Air Slash at. "I shall get to training as well, Jay. Besides, I could look after Alita and make sure she doesn't get into much trouble." Katrina tells me, sprinting after the excited Tranquill at a brisk pace.

Meanwhile, Chell remains by my side, wearing her usual stoic expression as we walk towards the area. Seeing her to be still here, I raise an eyebrow. "You still here, Chell?" I ask her, causing her to look at me. "I need to protect you, Jay." She simply replies, making me sigh and shake my head as I pat hers. "Listen, kiddo. You need to get stronger too, ya know? If the rest of the team gets stronger than you, then they'll do the protecting instead." I tell her, leaning closer to tell her something else. "Besides, I know how much you want to get stronger as well, kid." I finish, to which her eyes widen as she looks at me. "How did you know?" She asks me, the slightest bit of surprise showing through her emotionless mask via her eyes. "Of course I know, Chell. I did pick up on what you and Katrina were taking about just now, and it doesn't really mess up my schedule at all." I reply, smiling warmly at her as she just looks at me shamefully. "I'm sorry for not telling you, Jay." She apologizes, making me shake my head in response. "You don't have to. I know you wanna protect me, and you're doing a damn good job of it, mind you, but you should do what you feel like doing too, okay? It's not just my journey, it's your journey too. If you really wanna do a good job of respecting me, you should just act like yourself. Tell me what you want to do and do it, instead of just bottling it all up inside. It's not a great journey when you're not having any pun, right?" I tell her, to which she nods back at me, a happy smile showing on her face now, most likely due to the pun. "Now, go on ahead and practice your slicing more, okay? I promise you that I won't die during my two minute walk over there." I grin jokingly at her, causing her to laugh that cute laugh that just brings her adorable character to greater heights. "I'm sure you won't, Mister Jay! I'd be shell-shocked if you did!" She jokes back with a small smile breaking her stoic demeanor, making me chuckle at her as she runs off to train up.

Upon reaching the training area, I can see that the team is already smashing, cutting, blasting and punching their respective targets, the girls putting all of their effort into their moves as they mercilessly pound away at the unfortunate trees in their way. Even Nesia has returned from her run about in the trees, using her vines and her Energy Ball moves in tandem with the occasional Leaf Blade. I quickly take a seat away from the fighting Pokemon and on the grass, taking a deep whiff of the fresh air in the sky, wafting all around us. Fresh air really helps me to relax, and seems to purge most negative emotion out of my system. I don' take long to get to work after that, setting up a tent for us to seek shelter in for the night. I don't know about the rest of the team, but I sure as hell don't wanna get swarmed by hungry mosquitoes during my nap time. It takes awhile to complete by myself, but I eventually get the tent set up right. It's a good thing that I brought the instructions with me. I wonder if Yupia's doing alright on her end right about now…

Meanwhile, elsewhere within the region, a certain white-haired teenage girl stamps her foot on the ground in frustration. "Why. Won't. You. Stand!?" She yells angrily at the fallen foundations of the tent before her, before her fatigue gets the better of her and she sits down on the grass. Putting a hand to her forehead, she sighs in frustration. "I can't believe that I forgot to bring the instructions along!" She mutters to herself, while her Pokemon look at her strangely.

…Eh, I'm sure she'll be fine. Placing my cooking tools outside of the tent and putting the rest of my stuff inside, I decide to unfurl my sleeping bag on the floor of the tent and place the two sleeping Grass Type Pokemon on it for now. Those two look so cute like that, as the Petilil unconsciously huddles closer to the Cottonne, who wraps one leafy appendage around the Bulb Pokemon as they snooze. Smiling, I take my leave, but not before I take two bowls and pour some fresh water in one, along with a pile of Oran Berries in the other. I also end up using some of my bandages and my alcohol to patch up a nasty bruise mark on the Cottonee's forehead, as well as a few gashes along the Petilil's body. Now that I have the situation taken care of, I take a look at the progress that the team has made so far. Katrina's seemingly able to use her Dark Pulse and Sucker Punch attacks more readily now, as I can see the duration of which she uses to charge the beam decrease, and the duration she can maintain her Sucker Punch to be longer. When she isn't using her Sucker Punch and Dark Pulse to smash away at the tree, she switches to using Pursuit to save up her energy for the time being. As for Nesia, she's using Energy Ball to attack from a distance, while she uses her vines and the back draft caused by small bursts of Leaf Tornado from her tail to close the gap between her and her target and slicing it with Leaf Blade upon impact with the tree, like using ODMG to slay a Titan. Needless to say, she's making her strikes both fast and deadly, while maintaining her high mobility in the air as well as on the ground.

Alita is quite literally tearing her targets to pieces as she rains death from above using her Air Slash attack, as well as using Agility and Aerial Ace to make a speedy close up strike whenever she can. I can see that her blades have gotten slightly more numerous as she fires them at the target again and again, meaning that she's actually putting more power into her strikes due to her familiarity with the move. If she keeps that up, she'll be able to launch as many blades of Air Slash as she does with Air Cutter. Chell is just hacking away rapidly at her tree stump, using her dual blades to experiment how she can keep chaining her combo of slashes and cuts into other sequences. Her blades are moving a little awkwardly though, and she does jump away from the tree she's hacking at the second she can't seem to figure out how to chain her scalchopping. From what I can see, it would seem that she has some way to go if she wants to figure out her own style of using her dual blades. However, I do have a couple of ideas on how to give her a longer reach with her scalchops in fights.

Walking up to the sweat covered, panting Dewott, I grab her attention by calling her name. "Hey Chell, you got a sec? I have an idea. It's about your scalchops, if ya wanna listen in for a bit." I tell her, to which she nods and allows me time to explain my thought to her as she rests up on the ground. "Sure thing, Mister Jay. What is it?" She asks me as she takes a seat on the grass. "You picked up Ice Beam when you evolved, kiddo. So, I was thinking that you could use Ice Beam to freeze your scalchops, and increase their length with the ice." I reply, getting her to nod in understanding as she forms her scalchops again, this time letting out a beam of ice cold aura from her mouth to freeze the blades of water that form. Sure enough, the water freezes over, making the scalchops extend by a little less than half their original length. As Chell looks at her new, albeit temporary blades with interest, I decide to warn her about the drastic change of material that her blades are made of. "Well, one thing that you should look out for is the fact that ice is way more brittle than your water energy, and that the ice blades take time to reform with Ice Beam. I think that you should adjust your fighting style such that your blades don't break easily, while maximizing their power. That way, your normal blades will get better usage and damage in, as well as your icy ones. Whenever I want you to use this move in a fight, I'll tell you to use Razor Ice." I pat her head, causing her to smile and nod as she return to her original task of cutting away at the tree in front of her. As I continue to observe her, I can see that she isn't quite used to it yet, the brittle ice swords shattering upon impact with the tree. Chell doesn't give up, however, quickly using Ice Beam to form the blades anew, before resuming her training. Smiling, I quickly take my leave to check up on the others. She doesn't know it yet, but this'll help her perfect the power on her Ice Beam too.

Moving on, I take a look at Nesia, who's still quite focused on cutting and blasting away at her targets with no shortage of power and speed. As such, I decide that now is a good enough time as any, especially following her most recent evolution and her learning of Leaf Tornado, for her to finally learn how to use Leaf Storm. Approaching her training area from my current position, I barely make it a couple of steps closer to her before she quickly uses her vines to swing to a stop in front of me, addressing me with a calm yet confident smile. "Hello, Jay. Do you have something to tell me?" She asks, to which I grin and take a seat next to her on the grass. "Yeah, I do. I think that it's time you learned how to use Leaf Storm." I tell her, to which she looks at me curiously. "And how do you expect me to do that?" She asks, allowing me time to explain to her the basics of launching a gigantic mass of sharp leaves at the opposition. "So, here's how it works. Use all you power to form leaves that are small and sharp like your Leaf Tornado, but instead of making them swirl around a specific area, concentrate on simply throwing them at your target." I explain, to which the Servine immediately tries to perform by focusing her power into her tail, making a massive amount of small sharp leaves form around her. "Nice! You're quite the fast learner, eh Ness?" I praise her, making her smile as she nods in gratitude to my comment. "Of course I am. Thanks for the praise anyway, Jay." She grins, my comment apparently having had a sufficient boost to her ego.+ "Now, I need you to aim for that tree and throw." I tell her, causing her to use her tail to fling the massive storm of leaves at the tree, making quite a number of small cuts on the surface of the bark.

As she releases all that power into her move, I can see that she's not really suffering from any recoil. Confused at first, I tell her to throw an Energy Ball at the tree. She looks confused as to why I would tell her to do that, giving me a quizzical look. "If you say so…" She does so, resulting in a large chunk of the tree being blown off, making my eyes widen as I realize that my Servine actually has her hidden ability. "Ness, I think you have the ability called Contrary." I tell her, making Nesia raise an eyebrow in response. "What's that?" She asks, to which I tell her by pointing at the tree in front of her that she had just attacked. "See that? That's the result of a boost in your Special Attack. Normally, Leaf Storm takes away your Special Attack, but Contrary actually reverses all debuff effects on you." Upon hearing this, she smiles. "Very useful, isn't it?" She comments, making me nod. "It sure makes for one hell of a surprise, that's for sure." I agree with her, standing up to check up on the rest of the team. "Good on ya, Ness. You're already learning how to expand on your moves quite well, Ness. Keep at it with the practice on your Leaf Storm, and you'll be able to fell any major threat in seconds." I grin at her and stroke her back, making her smile back and nod as she returns to her training, launching another massive storm of leaves that cut away at the opposing tree in front of her. She's quite the smart cookie, for her to learn new moves that quickly. Her change in attitude will take some getting used to, though. Her increased confidence in herself isn't a bad thing, but I don't know what to think about her boost in ego now…

Refocusing my attention and shaking the thought out of my head, I settle my sights on Alita, who's already used her combo of attacks to mow down all of the leaves off of some of the tree on her side, leaving nothing but branches, hanging limply by the pieces of wood and bark that didn't get sliced through by her continuous assault of Air Slash. As she fires another wave of air blades at the next tree, I can see that she's already begun to gradually increase the number of blades that she can conjure up every volley, summoning more and more blades as she continues to get used to the attack. Smirking, I walk up to her training area, waving at her from the ground to get her attention. Sure enough, she sees me and lands down on the ground next to me in a flash. "Hey, Jay. What's up?" She asks, to which I take a seat on the grass to talk to her and get the gist of my plan into her head. "I think that you should learn how to use Roost. It's a move that heals you for half of your maximum health, and it's actually not too hard to get right, from what I've heard." I explain, causing her to look at me incredulously. "But what's the point of healing, if I'm too fast for them to hit me anyway?" She confidently asks me, puffing out her chest as if to prove her point. In light of the rather obvious question, I shake my head and sigh at her massive amount of confidence.

"Remember, Ali. Confidence is all and good, but overconfidence is really dangerous for you. There's always gonna be someone better, even if you don't think so. As such, it's always a good idea to be ready for damn near anything. Besides, getting hurt sucks, and healing always stops the pain." I calmly explain to her, causing her to try and find a point where she could argue her way out of learning Roost, but she sighs upon finding that I didn't leave any holes in this one for her to exploit. "Fine, I'll do it." She sighs and nods in response to my request, to which I smile warmly at her. "Thanks for understanding, Ali. Don't be too mad about this, okay?" I give her my thanks as I pet her head, getting her face to show a light shade of blush as she huffs and looks away from me. "It's fine. Just tell me what to do, you idiot." She replies, causing me to nod as I get to the explanation. "Okay, so the first thing I need you to do is to think about two things at once: How much you love to fly, and another happy thought. Picture the two in your mind, and hold on to those feelings of comfort and happiness." I tell her, Alita quickly closing her eyes and concentrating on the thoughts in her head. As she does so, I notice that her blush grows even deeper during her thoughts. "Now, put energy into the thoughts and try to materialize them." I tell her, causing her body to faintly glow white as small, white feathers float in the air around her. "Now, let go of that energy gently. Too fast, and it'll end up as another attack." I tell her, getting her to nod as she breathes out, the energy dispersing into herself and leaving a green glow that last for a few moments, signaling the success of the move.

As she opens her eyes, I give her a thumbs-up. "That's it. You now can heal yourself in fights." I nod to her, to which she smirks at me confidently. 'Eh, it wasn't that hard to learn…" She grins, while I chuckle at her. "Sure thing, Ali. Say, what were you thinking about?" I ask her, making her blush again as she huffs. "It's none of your business!" She curtly replies, causing me to shrug and brush my hand along her body. "I'm sorry for asking, then. Forgive me?" I ask, to which she sighs. "It's not your fault. I just don't want to talk about it." She tells me, causing me to nod as I get up and walk away. "But if you ever do wanna talk about it, you know where to find me." I reassure her, causing her to grin at me in response. "Yeah, I know. It's not like you'll disappear." She chuckles with a wry smile as I chuckle in response. "If I did, I would be able to pet your soft feathers or hear your cute laugh, either." I wink at her, making her blush even deeper than before. "Just go, you idiot!" She yells at me, although her smile still remains.

Checking up on Katrina next, I see that she's taking a break for now. Her fur is slick with her sweat as she breathes heavily, allowing her body to rest up from the exercise. "Heya, Kat." I smile, taking a seat beside her as she turns to look my way. "Hello, Jay. What brings you here?" She purrs, while I take a look at her paws. They're looking quite raw, affected by the training, but I decide to bring up the topic of getting her to learn something new anyway. "Well, I think you should learn Shadow Claw." I tell her, making the Liepard look at me quizzically in response. "Alright then, I suppose. How would I pull this move off?" She questions, to which I point to my own shadow. "Focus on putting power into your claws. Imagine the very shadows solidifying around your claws and giving them a boost in power." I explain, allowing her ample time to focus on her power, forming a shadowy aura around her claws in a flash. Looking towards me for the next step, I nod approvingly of her quick shift of power. "Nice. You're really getting the hang of this thing, huh?" I whistle, Katrina observing her shadowy claws with interest. "I don't think I need to tell you what to do with those babies next." I tell her, causing her to smile and nod at me as she quickly gets up and launches herself at the tree again, slashing at it mercilessly and making sure that her Shadow Claw stays together. Her grimace seems to indicate that she's putting effort into maintaining the move, but she's doing it regardless. Giving her a thumbs-up from my sitting position, I stay close to the tent. I don't wanna get hurt by any of the attacks directed at the trees. Besides, I'm pretty sure whoever hit me wouldn't be able to forgive herself.

For now, though, I decide to do some searching around for food, see if there are any berries that I can find to whip something up. I am damn hungry, and those Oran Berries I gave to the Petilil and the Cottonee were for the team. It's pretty close to sunset, so I really shouldn't take too long to poke around.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

[Jay]

The berries I needed for the dinner preparations tonight weren't that hard to find, as nature's bounty is quite plentiful. As I pick some more Oran Berries and put them in the bag that I had brought along with me, I feel the strong urge to eat some meat. "Yep, definitely want some meat in here tonight." I mutter to myself as I pat my grumbling stomach, my brain already beginning to whirr to life and formulate an idea to get my hands on-or my teeth in, rather-some delicious, juicy meat. Unova, like the rest of the world as of now, doesn't have too many people living on the same piece of land. Therefore, nature still has a strong hold on the land, allowing for animals and Pokemon species alike to flourish and reproduce. Trainers hunting wild animals with or without their Pokemon partners for food isn't that uncommon, actually, as the wide selection of wild animals to hunt around most parts of the world prove to be both quite a good test of physical and mental strength, as well as a delicious meal of flesh should the Trainer in question get their hands on some.

The problem for most people, however, is finding and catching one without the help of Pokmeon that have been trained sufficiently. I did briefly consider actually getting my hands dirty and running off into the woods to find a suitable prey animal. However, it quickly occurs to me that most animals that end up in the wild are more suited to fending off threats, whether it's the aggressive wild boar that loves to charge any and all threats with its long tusks, or the jumpy and agile pigeons that are quick to flee once a predator is sighted. As such, I summarize my thoughts on the matter into a single, three word sentence. It's not too many words, but it still gets the point across loud and clear. "Fuck that noise." Okay, then. Since running after one is out of the question, I decide to let the animals come to me instead. I take a look at my tools: my trusty pocket knife, my length of rope, and lots of tree branches lying around. Perfect. I quickly get to work, cutting notches into the branches of a tree and tying up some rope from the tree branch to a small rock that I can safely wedge into the notch carved into another branch protruding from the ground that I had stabbed into the dirt myself. I place the noose attached to the sticks onto the ground, place some berries in the middle of the noose and cover up the noose with dried leaves. Wiping the sweat from my forehead with an arm, I grin at my handiwork. Primitive, but the tree will hold and get the job done. Nothing to do now but lie in wait for a catch…

I don't know how long it's been since I had decided to leave the trap sitting there, but I suddenly hear the telltale sound of a branch whipping upwards into the air, along with the sounds of panicky squealing. Stepping into the area of the trap, I see that I have snagged a decent catch. A boar, most likely a juvenile one, hangs from the branch, the rope preventing its escape as I close in with my knife. I can't help but feel a twinge of guilt for what I'm about to do to the poor creature, but I need this kill. "For what it's worth buddy, I'm sorry. I won't leave you hanging for that much longer." I tell the frightened animal, before slitting its throat with my knife. It struggles once I cut open its jugular vein, blood splattering out from the wound and onto the dirt as the animal kicks weakly, its blood quite literally choking it to death. Once it stops moving, I quickly get to work, cutting the animal open and skinning it carefully, as not to tear up the pelt of the animal. Once done, I quickly gut the beast with my knife, avoiding the bladder as best I can and letting the organs sit there on the dirt. Once the boar's been gutted and skinned, I pull out a hacksaw from my bag and get to work. Moving my knife carefully along the beast, I come away with the tenderloins, to which I place in a bag for later. I then use my saw to hack away at the front legs of the animal, cutting off the shoulders and licking my chops as they join the bag that the tenderloins are in. Damn, I'm getting so hungry. Reaching into the beast's underbelly, I get the fillet out of the carcass, followed by the ribs. I make sure to snag some of the chunks of meat from the legs as well. The rest of the animal I untie from the tree, before burying it and walking away from the scene along with my tools. I make sure to use some of the water from the nearby stream to wash my hands with before I leave. No need to scare the team when I come back with fresh meat.

Returning to the camp, I quickly get to work, setting up a campfire to put some water in the pot and onto the fire. While it heats up, I decide to reach for my cooking tools and some ingredients that I had put in my tent. However, when I open up the flap to the tent, I see that the Petilil and the Cottonee are gone, and that they had eaten some of the Oran Berries and drank all of the water on their way out. Shrugging, I reach for my opened bag to find my cooking tools. However, what I pull out of the bag isn't what I had expected. Instead of finding my knife, I find that the two small Grass Types had taken refuge in my bag. I had actually grabbed the Cottonee, in particular. "Ow! Let go of me!" It speaks up, its voice rather feminine as it struggles in my grasp. "Oh, whoops. Sorry about that." I reply, quickly letting the little cotton ball go. Soon enough, I see the Petilil leaving the confines of the bag as well, her small leafy head poking out of the opening and her beady eyes looking at me gingerly. "Heya." I quickly address her, causing her to gasp and quickly hide back in the bag, making me sigh as I decide to help her calm down. "Listen, I'm not gonna hurt the two of you. I just wanted to get something from my bag." I tell them, the Petilil peeking out from my backpack a few moments later. "A-are you sure? Because y-you smell of b-blood…" She stutters, shaking like a leaf as she stares me down. Well, should have known that the Petilil would have smelled blood on me.

"Yeah, but I was hungry. We humans need meat, or else we don't get to live for long." I explain, causing the Petilil to shrink her head back into the bag. Meanwhile, the Cottonee observes me with a calm expression, its eyes seemingly observing me and waiting for me to make a move. Its stare is surprisingly unnerving, for something that cute. "Y-you're not going to e-eat us, are you?" The Petilil asks me from the confines of the bag, her voice so soft and shaky that one probably wouldn't have heard it if they weren't paying attention. Sighing, I edge myself closer to the bag and sit down, trying my best to coax her out of there so I can get my stuff. "No, I won't. I can promise you that much. Besides, if I wanted to eat you, I would have done it before you woke up." I reply, getting the timid little Grass Type to peek out of my backpack for a second time, eyeing me nervously as she contemplates what she had heard me say. For a while, all is quiet, save for the sounds of attacks being hurled at tree trunks. "It's okay, he's not gonna hurt us." The Cottonee tells the Petilil, staying quite calm, unlike her friend. Finally, after what seems to have been forever, the Petilil finally makes her way out of the bag. "O-okay." She tells me, quickly running towards the Cottonee and huddling closer to it for comfort. The Cottonee stares at me with the same expression as it wraps a leafy appendage around the jumpy Pokemon, making the scene really creepy.

Now that the Petilil is finally out of there, I can finally reach in and grab what I was hoping to get. I quickly resume my thought process, taking out a bottle of tomato puree and some onions, as well as some chili and some garlic. Finally I put them with a sharp knife atop my chopping board, bringing the ingredients outside to prepare for the meal. As I work on chopping the onions and cutting up the chili, I can see that the Petilil and the Cottonee have left the confines of the tent, observing my actions with interest, albeit the Petilil looking quite scared of me still. Chopping up the chili and crushing the garlic, I toss them into the pot with a large chunk of the tomato puree, along with some cloves, some thyme and the sliced onion. Shaking some salt and pepper into the pot as well, I leave that to boil as I cut up the tenderloin into medallions. Putting the medallions into a bowl, I put in some salt, pepper, oil and some chili powder into the mix, followed by a squeeze of lime juice before I mix it all together and wait for it to do its magic. A nice sunset looms over the forest, painting the tree leaves a shade of orange and signaling the end of the day as I wait on the boiling ribs in the pot.

Meanwhile, Alita has caught on to the wondrous smell of boiling meat and herbs, and lands next to me in order to see what I'm whipping up this time. "Woah! Whatever you're cooking, it smells amazing!" She comments, some drool seeping from the sides of her beak as she looks at the boiling pot. "Don't step too close to the fire, Ali. You may be on fire, but there's no need to take it literally." I grin, making her peck my thigh as I work. "Cut it out, you idiot! Now isn't the time for puns!" She groans, getting a grin out of me in reply as I move over to put the pot to one side as I put my pan on the fire, placing some more chopped onion in the pan and frying it with some brown sugar and smoked paprika. Once the onions turn brown and go soft, I pour in some Worcestershire sauce, some mustard and some of my ketchup as the sauce now simmers away on the fire, reaching that nice, thick consistency that I want. I then pour the sauce over the ribs that I had taken out of the pot, and grill the ribs and the loins over the fire with a cross of metal. As the ribs and the loins roast, I put some of the cuts of leg meat of the boar into the pot with some chunked up carrots, garlic and some celery. Katrina has since noticed the smell of grilled meat in the air, and has come over to admire the food up close. She doesn't say anything, but the way she's licking her lips like that tells me what she thinks of the food.

Once I'm done with grilling the meat, I place them onto a plate and put the pot back over the fire, but not before I quickly reach out to grab the sneaky vines of a certain Servine that had tried to sneak away with some of the ribs. "Hey now, Ness. You can't just make off with the food like that." I tell her off, making a tut-tut sound with my tongue while I wave a finger from left to right. She responds by making a face and reluctantly returning the ribs in her vines to the plate. "But I'm hungry, Jay." She protests, making me sigh as I pet her head. "And you'll get to eat soon, Ness. Just tell Chell that dinner's ready, alright?" I reply, the Servine quickly running off the inform Chell that I had cooked up some food. The Petilil and the Cottonee both look at the food with interest, the Petilil taking a deep whiff of the meat as she edges closer to the plate. "It still smells like meat, but it smells so good…" She breathes, watching me put some of the cooked pork onto the plates of each of the team members and digging in.

"So you two are finally up?" Alita says, finally looking at the two smaller Pokemon as I look at her incredulously. "So now you notice them." I deadpan, causing her to huff as she keeps eating her share. "Well, you can't blame me! You food smelled too good to not look at!" She protests, Chell just nodding and tearing away quietly at chunk after chunk of loin as if to prove her point. "Well, I'm glad it meats your standards." I grin cheekily as I joke, causing Alita to groan at the pun. "No! Stop it!" She replies, Katrina giggling in the background as Chell snorts, her mouth a little preoccupied with eating. Meanwhile, Nesia just rolls her eyes at me. "That was a bad joke." She bluntly comments, the sudden stab at my humor not going unfelt. "Yeesh, Ness. That hurt!" I frown, faking sadness as the Servine tilts her head upwards, as if to emulate the act of looking down on me. "Well, you shouldn't have said it to begin with." She replies, her mouth locked in a grin as she reaches for the last rib from her plate to only come up with air. She quickly does a double take, seeing Katrina daintily pulling off bites of meat from a rib that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere into her tail. Her eyes quickly narrowing in anger, Nesia latches her vines onto the offending Liepard, Katrina responding with a yelp as she's tied up in a flash.

"Give it back." She tells Katrina, her tone dripping with killing intent as her face darkens considerably. Katrina responds by using her still freed tail to place the piece of meat back onto her plate and grinning nervously. "Thank you." Nesia nods curtly, before dropping her aura of rage in a flash and eating the food as if nothing had happened. Holy shit, that scared me… "Come on, Ness. Throw Kat a bone, would ya?" I joke again, making Nesia sigh in frustration. "Yeah, she looked pretty fur-ocious, right Jay?" Chell laughs, her giggling breaking the sudden drop in temperature that Nesia's glare had produced. "Argh! No, you morons! Quit it right now!" Alita groans, slapping me over the head with her left wing as she hovers in the air. Meanwhile, I feel a small poke on my leg. Looking over, I can see that the Petilil and the Cottonee have since edged closer to me, listening in to the conversation. The Petilil, in particular, looks quite curious about me, eyes wide. The Cottonee is still eyeing me with her neutral expression, although it seems that she's a little more willing to come close to my general area.

"Excuse me sir, but are you a human?" The Petilil asks me, making me look at her funnily. "Yeah. Why? Don't I look human?" I reply, raising an eyebrow as I send a smile her way and wonder why she would even ask me such a strange question. I mean, I do look human, right? "Well, my old trainer told me that humans would never care about Pokemon at all…" She said, causing my face to darken unconsciously as I remember those two pricks that had the nerve to harass those Durant like they did. "What!? That's so bullshit!" Alita quickly rages, seething at the fact that these two were brought up by such disgusting, insufferable assholes. However, what she fails to realize is that her sudden outburst had scared the Petilil and the Cottonee, causing the former to hide behind the latter as she shakes in fear. Chell quickly takes notice of their fear, walking over to comfort them with a cheery smile. "Mister Jay is a human, and he really does care about us!" She speaks up, Katrina nodding in light of Chell's comment. "Indeed. He has saved all of us from danger at least once, never taking into consideration how we had hurt him previously." She adds, Nesia nodding from her spot on the logs surrounding the campfire. "He's very nice." She encourages them, Alita chipping in as well. "Yeah! He may not look like it, but he's a really good guy!" She tells the two, causing me to give her a confused and slightly offended look. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" I question the bird, who promptly ignores me and continues to eat her food.

Returning my attention to the two small Grass Types, I move over and make some room on the log that me and Alita are sitting on, patting the free side of the log while looking at them. "Come on, you two. It's going to be night out soon, and it does get pretty cold this time of year." I beckon them over, the two quickly hopping on the log and joining the rest of us around the fire. The Petilil seems more openly curious about me now, her beady eyes looking up into my blue orbs. I stare at her for a while, half expecting her to ask me something else, but a few moments of silence pass and I just return to eating. Meanwhile, Katrina decides to have her due fun with the Grass Type, getting behind the Petilil and purposefully using the back of her tail to touch the Petilil's back, causing her to let out a scared yelp as she makes a frightened leap into the air. Taking notice of her injuries, I decide to catch her in my arms before she makes contact with the ground, just in case she happens to make a wound open up. "Oof!" She squeaks as I catch her, gently cradling her as she were made of glass. "You okay?" I ask her, getting her to nod in response to my question. "I-I'm okay, thanks!" She nods timidly at me, looking quite nervous due to the close proximity of our bodies. "Don't be scared, okay? I'm not gonna eat ya." I reassure her, letting her down gently onto the grass.

After she's safely on the ground, I take a moment to glare at Katrina, the Cottonee following suit as well. "You're such a sneaky little prankster, aren't ya?" I sigh, causing her to giggle as she regards my expression with an amused smile. "You know you do not mind my antics, Jay." She purrs in response, her grin quite cheeky as she slinks over to me and rubs her soft coat against my arm. Not one to let this slide so easily, I quickly use my hands to stroke her soft coat, reaching one hand up to her head and giving it a good scratching. "Just take it easy on those two for now, 'kay?" I tell her, making her nod her head with a dreamy look in her eyes. "As you wish." She replies, still enjoying my petting session. However, I suddenly feel a tugging on my arm. Looking down, I see that Nesia had slithered over to me and has wrapped her vines around my arm, her expression a demanding one. "I want to feel your touch too, Jay." She demands, using her vines to place my hand on her head. Damn, her confidence is making her so assertive. Since she's already overpowered my hand, I have no other choice but to pet her as well, running my hand along the contours of her back and head as she sighs blissfully. "Jay's touch is so warm…" She coos, making me shake my head at my cute little princess.

Chell's just focusing on her food for the time being, while Alita looks at the scene with a glare. Chell, noticing this, smirks and pokes Alita in the side to get her attention. "You're jealous." She teases the Tranquill, said bird's face heating up as she directs her glare at the Dewott. "No, I'm not! I'm just mad at Jay!" She heatedly replies, making Chell grin wryly as she pats Alita on the back. "You just want attention, right?" She asks her, making Alita sigh before nodding her head. "Yeah, I do! It's just that he's so busy petting the rest of them that he doesn't really pay attention to me!" She growls, her tone now carrying a hint of anger and frustration to it. Hearing her sudden change in mood, I sigh as I stop petting the two close to me and sit down next to the Tranquill, using my hands to rub her feathers and head gently. "There, there. No need to be jealous. I still care about you as much as I do the rest of the team." I tell her, using one hand to pet Chell, while I use the other to give Alita the attention she wants. "Thank you, Jay." Chell murmurs, smiling softly as I stroke along her head, scratching behind her pointed ears on occasion. "I wasn't jealous!" Alita fumes, making me roll my eyes as I continue to stroke her soft feathers. "Okay, then. I'm sorry, so don't be angry at me, okay?" I soothe, making her blush as she looks at me. "Well, I wasn't that angry at you…" She replies, making me chuckle at her inability to tell me how she feels. "If you're angry, I won't be able to hear that laugh of yours, or see you smile. I like those things about you, so don't be mad that often, 'kay?" I add, causing her to smirk at me as she hears that. "Yeah, yeah, you idiot." She muses, although her smile just gets wider.

Suddenly, a thought crosses my mind. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot." I speak up, turning to the Cottonee and the Petilil. "You guys are still hurt pretty bad, and you're in no shape to return to the wild yet. As such, I've decided that you two can stay with us until your wounds are fully healed." I tell them, the Petilil's eyes widening as she takes in what I'm suggesting. "Are you sure? We don't want to be a bother…" She timidly tells me, to which I shake my head. "Nah, it's fine. Besides, I'm the reason you guys got hurt in the first place. Whaddya say?" I ask them, allowing the two to mull it over for a bit. It doesn't take too long for them to come to a conclusion though, as the Petilil quickly answers the question. "We'd love to, Sir." She replies, the Cottonee nodding in agreement. "It would keep us safe for a while. Besides, I prefer to stick with her." She adds, gesturing to the Petilil as she floats there, her expression lax.

Well, that takes care of that. I smile at the two, the Petilil looking quite happy. "One more thing. Do you two have any names I could call you by? "Cause calling you by your species name doesn't seem that polite." I ask the two, the Cottonee quickly shaking her head. "We don't have names. Our old trainers just called us animals." She tells me, making me groan. Of course those asshats would do that. "Well, that's gonna change. I'm gonna give the both of you some real names. Are you okay with me naming the both of you?" I ask, the Petilil nodding her head in a flash. "Okay!" She replies, the Cottonee agreeing as well. "If she's fine with it, then I am too." She voices her agreement, to which I smile. "Great! Now, let me think for a sec…" I reply, thinking about the Cottonee first. She's kinda like the head of a dandelion, so maybe Dandelion? No, that's way too long. How about Dandy? Nah, that sounds too dumb. Danny? No, that's a dude's name. Think, brain! "How about Dani?" I ask the Cottonee, who looks at me in confusion. "But isn't that a boy's name?" She asks me, getting me to shake my head. "No, it's spelled with an 'i' at the end. That just makes it seem more feminine to me, at least." I shrug, making her mull the name over for a bit. "Alright, then. Dani doesn't sound too bad." She replies, making me grin and I turn my attention to the Petilil. "And for you, how about Lily? It's short, sweet, and it's a cute name to compliment your cute looks." I tell the Petilil, who nods happily as she accepts her new name immediately. "Thank you, Sir!" She thanks me, causing me to address her way of calling me. "Well, I do prefer if you called me Jay, but you can call me whatever you'd like." I tell her, as the idea and the sound of being called sir is a mite uncomfortable.

"Okay then, Sir." She replies, making me smile warmly at her. Well, the sir thing is gonna take some getting used to, but I think I'll manage. Besides, she's way too cute when she's happy. I just can't find it within myself to tell her to stop. The rest of the team shares some smiles as well, the two new additions seemingly not unappreciated by anyone else. Dinner passes without too much conversation from there on out, the two Grass Types still a little too uncomfortable around me to ask me any questions that would sate their curiosity. After handing Nesia my laptop, I quickly clean up after dinner, washing off the plates and cooking utensils in the nearby river and putting them away in my bag. When I finish with my cleaning, I proceed to comb and clean the rest of the team, using wet tissue to wipe Nesia clean from her rigorous day of running in the trees. A Servine can't photosynthesize if she's all dirty. The night is still young, but I decide to hit the sack anyway. "Hey team, wanna head to bed?" I ask the group of Pokemon doing their thing, the team quickly complying with my request as they find a nice spot to lie down on the grass. Seeing them together outside, my mind just decides to say 'fuck it', making me bring my sleeping bag from the tent and out into the open to join them outside. It doesn't take long for me to black out after that, the need for sleep pulling me into the land of dreams.

 **Author's note:**

 **Heya, everyone. It's me again. Sorry if I've been uploading a little behind schedule, but I've been busy with my studies. Exams hurt brain hole, and hurty brain feel sad during writing. So, I've kinda slowed down for a while. Don't worry, I won't slow down the updates. They're slow enough already, as most of you will agree. I'm just feeling the burn of the exam week on my ass right now, and I need some serious ice for this one. After this, I'll be right as rain by next chapter, so I hope you lovely people enjoyed this one! You guys have given me more support on this that I could have ever asked for, and enough to last me a life time. I hope I'm able to entertain you guys and girls for months, perhaps even years, to come.**

 **Good luck in all your personal quests,**

 **Roccer**


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

[Jay]

I wake up in a panic, cold sweat trailing down my shivering body as I am jolted awake from my nightmare. God damn it, they…he…won't get out of my fucking head! Looking around, I see that my fitful sleep hasn't awoken the team yet. At least I didn't wake them up yet. Growling in anger, I shake of the last vestiges of sleep with haste as I carefully put on my hoodie and make my way out of my sleeping bag, letting the cool early morning air enter my lungs. As I breathe in the cool air, I hear the sounds of splintering wood and shattering ice nearby. Wait, what? Who would still be up at this time of day? Raising an eyebrow, I move in closer to the general direction of the sound. I have a good hunch about who is it, but I'm not a hundred percent sure yet.

My suspicions are proven to be true as I round the corner past a tree to see Chell hacking away at a tree, her blades frozen solid with ice. She's dishing out some good hits with her scalchops, but the Dewott still seems to have some issues with the amount of strength that she's putting into each slice, the blades quickly shattering after a few hits against the trunk of the tree. She doesn't let up, quickly letting loose an Ice Beam onto her blades to reform them, before resuming her slicing of the tree trunk. She doesn't seem to have been out here for too long, as she isn't breathing too heavily. However, she does seem to be a little frustrated due to her inability to make the move work effectively. She isn't keen on giving up either, as she launches herself towards the tree again, trying hard to figure out the right angles and strength required to slash at the target without breaking her scalchops against the wood. Her persistence is quite admirable, but she isn't making much progress with her method.

I think that's enough watching from the sidelines for now. Time to get myself noticed. "Heya, Chell. Up and about early, I see." I speak up from behind the Dewott, getting her to jump before turning around to see me approaching her. A smile shows across her features and breaks the expression of hostility she originally had as she recognizes the familiar face of her trainer, and she is quick to greet me as I walk up to her. "Hi there, Mister Jay!" She quips, her bubbly attitude rather subdued by her newfound stoicism, but still showing nevertheless. "Still working on your Razor Ice, I see." I grin, patting her on the head and making her hum as she nuzzles my hand back. "Yep!" She grins, before she visibly deflates. "But I'm having a bit on a problem with keeping the blades together." She sighs, looking forlornly at her icy blades. She does look quite discouraged about all this practice not paying off, so I decide to help her out on that front with some emotional support.

"Why don't I watch you train then, kiddo?" I suggest, Chell looking at me in response to my question. "Are you sure? You don't have to if you don't want to…" She reassures me, although her tone of voice and her facial expression isn't doing a good job of hiding her true intentions. "Yeah. There's something that I wanna forget about too. That's why I'm out here, and not sleeping over there." I sigh, jerking a thumb towards the general direction of the rest of the team. Chell nods, quickly returning to her task of using her Razor Ice move to hack and slash at the tree trunk. For a little while, she trains in silence, while I just observe her from the side and occasionally give her a few compliments. She always returns the praise with a smile of her own, her mood now seemingly having improved from when she was training alone. Her attempts are slowly getting better as I watch on, her blades now taking a few more hits against the wood before shattering and forcing her to take a step back. "Nice moves, kiddo! You're doing great!" I cheer her on, making her look my way with a happy smile as she gets no shortage of praise with her training. "Thanks, Mister Jay!" She replies, before freezing her scalchops solid with Ice Beam before she dashes towards the tree again, hacking away at the wood with renewed vigor.

Meanwhile, I struggle to deal with the thoughts that have rooted themselves deep into my mind. These constant dreams are something that I'd love to get rid of, but at the same time, they're one of the most effective, albeit brutal reminders of what dangers lay in wait for me and my sister. I sigh bitterly as I recall those specific events from my past. What he said that night is something I won't ever forget, especially the part about finding us again. What happens to me doesn't matter much at all, but I can't imagine what would happen to Yupia if they found her. The pain and suffering of our previous lives is something she's already had to go through once, and as her brother I have no intention of letting her suffer like that ever again. If they found her…No! I won't let that happen! I've been able to hide her from the world for this long, and I'll make damn sure that I keep on doing it.

While Chell is focused on training her dual wielding skills, I can't help but notice the occasional concerned glance that she's been sending my way. It may be due to the fact that I'm haven't been shooting some praise her way for a little while, or simply because I look like I'm in deep thought. As she resumes her training, she gets increasingly unfocused due to her concern. Her blade slices slowly get more and more sloppy and end up breaking her blades more often, even missing the tree trunk a few times during her combo. She's quite worried about me, but she keeps hesitating once she feels like confronting me about it. It seems that she's still having problems with telling me how she feels and all, so I decide to give her a small nudge in the right direction. "Hey, Chell! Your moves are getting a little messy, and I wanna know what's up." I call out to her, getting her attention and walking over. She smiles at me as she stops her training to answer my question. "Well, you're been looking quite troubled for a while now, Jay. I wanted to ask you, but I felt that you didn't want to talk about it." She replies, her smile growing a little weary as she awaits my answer. My smile doesn't change while I pat her head, mostly to hide my surprise at the new level of observation that came with her evolution. Before, she never would be able to see that kind of mental conflict in anyone.

However, she is right about how I didn't want to talk about it. Admitting that most of my childhood was basically torture porn isn't something I want to remind myself of, much less tell anyone about. However, I feel a sense of guilt when I consider not telling Chell or the others at all. So, I decide to hold off on the idea of telling her what I had in my mind for now. "I'll tell you about it later, kiddo. For now, don't worry about it. I can deal with these things myself." I reassure her, patting her on the head with a smile, which causes her to smile back. "If you say so, Mister Jay." She replies, still looking quite worried about my rogue thoughts. "Trust me, kid. I'll be fine. Besides, I have you to protect me, right? I won't die when there's a cute, strong Dewott like you by my side." I add, making Chell's smile return to her features as she blushes lightly. "I'll try my best, Mister Jay." She tells me, her cute smile really making my heart flutter as she returns to her training, taking a quick dash towards the tree and barreling into it with her scalchops again. Her skill, as well as the determined glint in her eyes has returned with a vengeance, even though the tree she's hitting didn't do anything worthy of her wrath to begin with. While she does that, I pull out my phone and take a look at the time. It's pretty close to being morning again, and I am feeling pretty hungry. Since the team isn't going to wake up too soon, I might as well head out and find myself something to eat. Can't do much on an empty stomach, after all.

"Hey, Chell. I'm going to go and get us some breakfast. I won't be long, so you can keep doing what you're doing in the meantime." I inform her, getting her to briefly pause in her actions and send a nod my way. "Got it. I'll tell the others if they wake up." She replies, before promptly resuming her dual blade slashing as I leave the area. I make a quick stop back at the campsite first, as I want to pick up a container for any edible foodstuffs that I find. I may not be all that smart, but I'm positive that a container will be able to hold way more things than my hands can. However, I quickly see that my job will be much harder when I take notice of the team sleeping right in front of the tent. Well, I just gotta make sure that I don't wake them up. Making sure to slowly edge my way across the gaggle of sleeping Pokemon, I slowly zip open the entrance and reach for my backpack, still nestled snugly in the corner of the tent. I quickly take the bag and open it up, taking out one of the now empty containers I had used to store some of the veggies I had used to make the stew last night. Speaking of which, I finally remember that I still haven't touched the pot of stew, its contents still sitting within its metallic body and awaiting consumption.

I'll just have to eat it later. For now though, I'm feeling like some berries. I zip my bag back up and prepare to wander off into the forest, but I sense a familiar tail reaching for my wallet again. A smirk sprouting onto my face, I quickly dart out a hand to grab onto the offending appendage, revealing a wide awake Katrina who is now caught off guard due to my ability to sense her sneak attack. "Gotcha, Kat. Thought I wouldn't notice that, huh?" I ask her, making her pout as her fun gets spoiled. "You simply cannot let me have my way, can you?" She huffs, making me stick my tongue out playfully in response. "No, 'cause that cat's out of the bag now." I start, making Katrina giggle at the poor joke. "But, I can let you have this much." I finish, gently lifting her up and holding her in my arms bridal-style. Her soft belly exposed, I use my free hand to rub her underside, causing her expression to grow dreamy and dazed as she feels the good sensations from my ministrations.

"Mmm… I suppose this will do." She purrs, her expression one of enjoyment as I continue to lavish her soft body with strokes and rubs. Her initial shock has worn off, her mind now fully fixated on the generous amount of physical affection I'm giving her. With the feline now snuggled comfortably in my arms, I continue my walk into the forest. "Say, what made you wake up this early, anyway?" Katrina asks me, getting a shrug in response. "I just woke up, I guess. I saw that Chell had the same idea, so I watched her train for a bit." I reply, which gets Katrina to nod in understanding. Meanwhile, I scour the nearby area for any signs of a berry tree or a fruit tree, but I fail to spot anything. "What exactly are we doing out here, anyhow? Shouldn't we reside closer to the campsite?" Katrina questions my motives, looking around the calm serenity of the early morning forest. "Well, I wanted to find some berries, or any fruit of the sort. Having meat for breakfast doesn't exactly appeal to me, at least. Besides, a balanced diet is kinda important for a healthy body." I explain, still failing to find anything that resembles an edible fruit. "…Although I still can't seem to find much of anything right now." I sigh, getting hungrier by the minute.

While I keep looking around for any trace of berries, I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something important. …Eh, that can wait. For now, I just want to get some food in the belly before I die of hunger, damn it. This is when the one thing I had so carelessly forgotten shows itself and slaps me right in the face. "I am picking up the scent of ripe berries in that direction, Jay. Judging by the smell, they should be Oran Berries." She informs me, to which I stop dead in my tracks and face palm. Hard. God damn it, how could I have forgotten!? She's a Pokemon, and Pokemon have enhanced senses to find food in most cases, especially when it comes to the sneaky swipe and run lifestyles of the Dark typing. Which means I basically wasted five minutes of my life. "Well, shit." I mutter, shaking my head at my own stupidity, as Katrina giggles with mirth.

The feline's sense of smell proves to be accurate, as I soon find myself staring at an Oran Berry bush. Judging by the mediocre amount of berries remaining on the branches of said bush, I can assume that some other wild Pokemon have already had their fill of fruit. "There aren't too many berries left, but this'll do. Thanks for the help, Kat." I thank the Liepard, who simply smiles in return. "Not a problem, Jay. I am more than happy to help, especially if it involves a feast." She purrs, licking her lips and diverting her attention to the small, blue berries. "Then let's get picking, shall we? The rest of the team should be up by now, and I don't wanna keep them waiting for long." I suggest, gently putting Katrina down onto the ground and moving in to collect the berries. Katrina helps out as well, using her tail to swipe the ones that are lower to the ground, while I grab the ones that are higher up in the bush. Katrina's tail is really helpful, snatching the small fruits by the bunch and placing them into the container. We quickly fill the small box with the sweet fruits, and I prepare to head on back to the campsite.

"Come on, Kat. Let's get going." I call for the Liepard, who nods and quickly slinks over to my side. "Then let us be on our way, shall we?" She replies, to which I extend a hand. "Ladies' first." I grin, making the feline giggle daintily as she walks on past me. "Quite the well mannered human, I see." She remarks, getting a chuckle out of me as I follow her back to camp. "Well, you are quite the well mannered lady yourself." I shoot back, reaching into my pocket to take a sip of my ketchup. Looking at her snout, I notice a little bit of Oran Berry juice on her face. I would help her clean that up, but I don't have any tissues on me. But, I can still use something else… My grin growing cheeky, I get an idea as I put away my ketchup bottle. "Besides, you are…" I trail off, crouching so my face is inches from hers. "Quite beautiful…" I inch my face closer to hers, making her look at me in surprise. "Jay?" She asks, before I lick her cheek and taste the rest of the juice off her fur. "If I do say so myself." I finish, pulling away to see a faintly blushing Katrina. Her surprise remains, before she smiles at me with half lidded eyes. "So cheeky, good sir! If I hadn't known better, I'd say you were flirting with me." She teases me, making me smirk at her in return. "Nah, just wanted to wipe the juice of your face. Can't have such a pretty face like yours tainted, now could we?" I reply, getting her to giggle again as her blush remains.

It doesn't take long to find our way back, as the smell of charred wood leads Katrina back to our starting point in a flash. As we approach, I can immediately see that the rest of the team is up, save for Lily and Dani. They're a little preoccupied with snuggling each other in their sleep, sleeping without a care in the world. Nesia is just curled up and soaking in the rays of the morning sun, while Chell is busy with the practice of her sword swinging, her dual blades making slight swishing sounds for each slice as they cut through the air. Looking up, I can barely make out the form of Alita in the sky, the Tranquill freely roaming the skies above the rest of us. She's a dot in the sky from where I'm looking, so I can only imagine how high she's flown. "Heya, team. I'm back. You slept well, I assume?" I announce my arrival, making Chell's head quickly dart in my direction. Upon seeing me, she quickly breaks out into a smile, getting me to smile back. Nesia simply moves her head, so that one of her eyes is staring at me.

"Did you find anything?" Chell asks me, to which I nod and show her the box of berries I had found. "Well, I didn't find these. Kat did." I tell her, to which the feline in question taps Chell on the shoulder to get her attention. "He completely forgot that I could smell what he was looking for, so he spent some time wandering around without a clue." She smirks, making Chell giggle. As Chell laughs, I roll my eyes and sigh. Of course she would tell on me. "In my defense, I had a really pretty Liepard in my arms. She was really distracting, ya know?" I retort, making Katrina blush again as Chell smiles cheekily. "Your compliments are making me quite embarrassed, good sir! I must ask that you cease your verbal assault this instant!" She giggles, Chell laughing along with her. "It's im-paw-sible to not become attached to him!" She jokes, making me chuckle at the pun. I am so proud of my little Dewott. Even though she's much more serious about things now, she still likes making puns. However, I do notice two appendages reaching for the berries from the corner of my eye. Quickly turning around, I grab the two appendages to reveal a vine and a soft, purple tail. Sighing, I quickly address the two sneaky thieves. "No, you two. You'll get your share too, so just hold on for a bit, alright?" I gently scold the two, the Liepard smirking while she nods, and the Servine simply turning her head away from me, as if displeased by my actions. She's really been quite a handful ever since she evolved, as she only seems to have become more demanding of me and my affection. "Morning, Jay." I hear a voice from directly above my head, making me turn around to see Alita, who has decided to land next to me. "Morning to you too, Ali. How's the sky from up there?" I ask, to which she shrugs. "Meh, more or less the same. Blue, and with lots of white clouds." She replies, getting me to grin. "Blue, huh? Didn't know the sky was feeling down." I joke, making Alita groan in exasperation. "No, you idiot. I mean that the sky is blue in color, not that it was feeling blue." She sighs, while I simply chuckle at her reaction. "Mmm…huh? Is it morning already?" I hear a small voice say behind me, making me turn around to see Lily. She's awake now and looks like she had just risen from the land of sleep, so I think our banter had accidentally woke her up.

"Who's making that noise? Yeesh, it's loud…" I hear another yawn close to Lily, and I see Dani beginning to stir from her sleeping position. However, she just turns around and simply goes back to sleep, using her leaves to turn her light body so that it faces away from us. "Keep it down, alright? I'm trying to sleep…" She groans, before growing silent again. Shrugging, I decide to address Lily, since she's up already. "Heya, Lily. Sleep well?" I ask the Petilil, to which she nods in response. "Yes, I did. Thank you for asking, Sir." She smiles happily, getting me to reach down and pat her, ruffling the leaves atop her head as I do so. "Glad to hear. If you don't mind, the rest of us are going to eat some breakfast before we leave. You okay with us staying a bit longer?" I question, getting her to respond with another nod. "It's not a problem. I'll just wait for Dani to get up, then. She really likes to sleep in, even though our old trainers didn't let us…" She trails off, her expression growing sad as she remembers her past. Sitting down next to her, I gently stroke her leaves to get her attention. "Hey, cheer up. They're not here anymore, 'cause you're with us now. I promise you, I won't do what those assholes did to the both of you." I tell her, getting her to smile at me again. "Thank you, Sir." She says again, her smile making her look really cute. Damn it, why do I always pick up the cute ones? My heart can't take all this cute…

Still feeling rather hungry, I reach for a berry and pop it into my mouth, tasting the sweetness of the fruit, along with its unique taste. It's sort of like a blueberry, but it also kinda isn't at the same time. The team is already eating up their fill of the small, blue treats, making sure to chew a little faster in case the others take the rest of them. Chell in particular, is eating like she doesn't need to chew too much, making short work of the berries unfortunate enough to be in the reach of her paws. Although she's not eating as messily, she's still eating just as fast as she always had. I guess some things never change, huh? Chuckling at the pace at which the Dewott is practically inhaling the berries, I quickly get to work and relight the fire underneath the pot of soup, getting the broth inside up to a higher temperature to kill off any unpleasant germs that may have sifted in through the lid. As the delicious concoction boils in the pot, the team quickly takes notice of the smell of more food just waiting to be devoured.

Seeing their varying expressions of hunger and their gazes that are now locked on the metallic container, I grin. "Yes, yes, it's for you girls. Just don't…" I start, before I make the mistake of blinking. When I open my eyes again, I see that the Pokemon have already made their move and done what I had wanted to tell them not to do, as they are drinking directly from the pot itself. "…Damn it." I sigh, shaking my head as Lily just stares at the scene. "You want some soup, Lily?" I ask the Petilil, to which she hesitates. "Don't worry, you can have some. Just make your choice quick, before the others drink it all up." I reassure her, getting her to answer me this time. "I'd like some too, Sir." She replies, getting me to stand up and prepare to jump into the fray of paws, claws, vines and wings that are circling viciously around the pot, seemingly unwilling to let a fifth member join the fray. Planning out my next move, I decide to reach for the ladle first, then to use the box next to me to hold the soup in for Lily. "Alright, I can do this." I reassure myself, although part of me thinks that I might as well not return alive from the battlefield I am about to thrust myself into. Taking a deep breath and taking off my hoodie, I jump in, hoping to get what I want before I'm torn to pieces.

"That stuff tasted pretty good, huh Lily?" Dani sighs contentedly, while Lily nods in agreement. "Yeah, and it was all because Jay helped us get some from the others." She replies, smiling at me as I pack up my stuff and get ready to leave. "Well, I'm glad you two liked my cooking." I nod their way, zipping up my bag and slinging it onto my shoulders. As I put on my hoodie, I see three very guilty looking Pokemon, all of them with their head drooping low as I walk up to them. "Come on, girls. I said that it wasn't too big of a deal. It's fine." I tell them for the third time today, making Chell, Alita and Katrina look at me pensively. "But Mister Jay, your clothes…" Chell trails off, making me remember the old white shirt and black pants that I was wearing only five minutes ago, torn to unrecognizable shreds in a matter of seconds. Well, at least my underwear survived the trip…

"Apologies for my carelessness, Jay." Katrina says. "Yeah, what she said." Alita adds, making me sigh as I rub their heads. "It's fine, girls. Really. I have way too many shirts and pants of the same color anyway." I tell them, while Nesia simply rolls her eyes at us. "You deserved it for stepping into our eating time." She scoffs, while I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose at the Servine's comment. She's really become more arrogant ever since her evolution, huh? I'm not too sure that I like her change in attitude at all. Shaking my head, I get ready to leave the campsite. "Come on, girls. We should get a move on if we-" I begin, before I'm abruptly cut off by a sudden scream from the road ahead of us. The sound is shrill and sharp, making Lily jump up in fright before hiding behind Dani. "What was that!?" Alita yelps, the shock from hearing such a sudden sound still affecting her. "I dunno, but it sounds like a kid's in trouble. Let's go, team!" I quickly take action, running off in the direction of the scream, the Pokemon following closely behind. Hopefully I don't arrive too late…


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

[Jay]

The scream didn't emanate too far from our current position, as I quickly run into trouble. The first thing I bump into while running towards the source of the scream is a group of two grunts with the same 'P' symbol on their outfits running off in the direction of Wellspring Cave. They seem to be in a hurry, pushing a little girl out of the way as they take their leave. "Outta the way, squirt!" One of the grunts growls and gives the hapless kid a shove. This causes the little girl to lose her balance as she falls towards the ground. "Ahh!" The girl lets out another scream as she plummets downwards, getting me to speed up my sprint to catch her in my arms. As soon as she realizes that she's stopped falling, she opens her eyes and looks up at me with uncertainty. "You okay, kid?" I ask her as I help her stand, getting her to nod as she points at the two grunts making a quick getaway. "They took my Pokemon, Mister! Please help me get my Drilbur back!" She cries, to which I nod and put my hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, kid. I'll make sure you see your Pokemon again." I reassure her, just in time for the team to catch up to me. Chell and Nesia had decided to follow me on foot, while Lily and Dani had hitched a ride on Katrina.

I raise an eyebrow due to the absence of a certain Tranquill, but my confusion is quickly resolved as I hear the familiar flapping of wings and the sudden smack of a wing across the top of my head. "Damn it, you idiot! Stop taking off like that!" She huffs, getting me to grin in slight relief. At least I don't have to worry about her lagging behind. "But I thought you'd be able to keep up with me, Ali. I'm pretty sure you have the power to do so, after all." I reply, which causes her to blush a bit before she puffs out her chest while in midair. "Well, duh! Of course I'd be able to keep up with you! You just took off all of a sudden, so you can't blame me there." She retorts, making me nod in response. "I see. Anyways, we've got a Pokemon theft on our hands, team. Two of those Plasma assholes just made off with this little kid's Pokemon." I quickly explain the situation and gesture to the little girl, Chell's eyes narrowing as she places a hand on her scalchops. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get 'em!" Alita shouts, quickly flying off in the direction of the cave, while Katrina simply shakes her head as she runs off after the bird, Chell in hot pursuit. Nesia simply decides to use her vines to grapple on my shoulder and point in the direction she wants me to go, making me sigh and shake my head at the arrogant little Servine as I run off after the team, not wanting to get left behind.

I quickly catch up to the rest of the team, who have already caught up to the two thugs that had the balls to go and steal the girl's Pokemon. They've surrounded the two Plasma members on three sides, the cave serving to act as the fourth side of the surrounding tactic. Cave systems like Wellspring Cave are filled with tons of Pokemon that like hunting in large groups, like Zubat and Woobat, so blindly rushing into one without any preparation or gear to speak of is pretty much a death wish. Judging by how the two Plasma grunts haven't rushed into said cave, I'd assume that they weren't prepared to go spelunking. "The hell's with these Pokemon!?" One of them shouts, not sure why my Pokemon had seemingly decided to chase after them out of the blue like that. "They're wild Pokemon, so they're uncoordinated." The second grunt mutters to his partner, who raises an eyebrow in confusion. "So?" He asks, making the second grunt groan in annoyance at the stupidity of his partner. "So, we might be able to take 'em on. Who knows, we might even be able to catch some of 'em." The second grunt smirks, pulling out a Pokeball and preparing to fight. Before he can make his move, I step out from behind my Pokemon, glaring at the two grunts with no shortage of hatred and anger.

"Sorry to burst your bubble pal, but these girls aren't wild. Now, hand over the Drilbur you took from that girl." I growl, making the two grunts smirk in response to my request. "This ain't your place to meddle, kid! Now get outta here, before we liberate your Pokemon, too!" The first one smirks, getting ready for a fight. The Drilbur sees our little confrontation and lets out a hopeful cry, before the second grunt holding him makes him shut up by glaring daggers at the hapless little Mole Pokemon. Intimidated by the glare of the man holding it, the small Pokemon immediately clams up and stares at me hopefully. As the grunts threatens me, the team's facial expressions immediately darken as they advance slowly on the two grunts as one. The grunts quickly take notice of their current situation, making me smirk as they realize that they're hopelessly outnumbered. "It's seven on three, pal. If you don't wanna get hurt, I suggest you give up and hand over the stolen Pokemon, now." I warn them, causing the first one to gulp as they slowly back away from us and towards the cave. "This isn't looking too good, bro! What do we do!?" The first of the two Plasma goons begins to panic, making the second one look the situation over with a nervous expression before tapping his partner on the shoulder. "I got it! Into the cave, now!" He orders, making the first grunt look at him with an incredulous expression.

"Are you for real, dude!? We're not ready to go in there! The wild Pokemon will chew us up and spit us out like a cookie gone bad!" The first grunt whimpers, causing the second one to gulp as he nods in agreement. "I know that, but what choice do we have? We're in a tight spot here, and this is out only chance of getting out of this mess without getting handed over to the cops." He replies in a grimace, convincing his fellow felon to escape with him. It doesn't take the guy long to agree with his buddy's plans, as they nod and both run off into the cave. Shit. I wasn't really expecting them to actually go through with their plan. This complicates things for us, that's for sure. I sure as hell don't have a compass with me, and I'm not about to willingly let my team rush into such a dangerous place unprepared. "Team, we have a problem here. I don't have any cave exploring tools with me, and it seems that our opponents have decided to use the same caves as a method to get away." I groan, not wanting to tango with a bunch of wild Pokemon on top of having to clean up the two Plasma goons. Not only do most of the Woobat there know the move Confusion, they love to just hang on the roofs of the cave in large numbers. Confusion may be a move that misses more often than not, but the sheer number of little flying nuisances that spam the attack all at once is more than enough to make sure at least one of the moves confuses the intended target. After that, the fight is basically over.

"Then let's go in after them! They can't just take Pokemon away like that!" Alita fumes as she gestures to the mouth of the cave impatiently, making me sigh and shake my head. "Do you have any idea how hard it would be if we went in there right now? I don't have a way to get out of the cave safely, and I don't have a large supply of healing items, either. If we get overrun by too many wild Woobat in there, you won't be able to do much at all. Heck, they might kill you if you wander too far in there." I explain, which immediately gets Alita to understand the dangers of the innocent little cave entrance right in front of her. There is a damn good reason that trainer deaths occur the most in caves like this one, and I'm not about to take that risk, let alone risk the lives of any of the girls. I'm not about to let a dumbass decision like that be the end of any of them. "What should be our next move, Jay?" Katrina asks me, making me think about it for a second. Since the two goons are just going to get lost and confused in there, I suppose we could wait it out. But then again, they might end up dead in the cave along with the Drilbur, and I don't want that happening. I could call my sister, see if she's anywhere near the area. If I remember, she packed her own stuff, so she should have thought of this type of situation.

Pulling out my phone, I dial in Yupia's number and hold it to my ear. "What are you doing?" Chell asks, seeing me use the phone in a manner she hasn't seen before. "I'm making a call to my sister. Phones allow you to call anyone else that has one over really far away, even across the world if ya want." I explain, to which Nesia looks at the small device with interest, while Katrina raises an eyebrow at the small rectangular machine. "You humans can do quite a bit with your minds, it seems." She comments, to which I smirk. "Yup. Anything's possible, if you put your mind to it." I nod, as the call connects and I hear my sister's voice over the speaker. "Hello! This is the awesome Yupia speaking!" She declares, making me chuckle at her cool act. "I know you're awesome and all sis, but I have a bit of a problem at the moment." I reply, causing Yupia to gasp. "Brother! It is good to hear from you again! What seems to be the problem?" She asks, making me sigh in annoyance as I tell her about the two Pokemon stealing thugs that ran off into Wellspring Cave. "Oh my god! That sounds terrible, Brother! I shall assist you as soon as I get there!" She assures me, before she laughs sheepishly. "Say, brother, where did you say you were again?" She asks, making me sigh as I smirk. "We're in front of Wellspring Cave, silly. Now get over here quick, 'kay?" I tell her. "No worries, Brother. You really should remember to prepare for anything, you lazybones." She lectures me, making me chuckle as I hear her address me by my nickname. "Yeah, yeah, sis. Just hurry up, and get here, alright?" I remind her of the urgency of the situation, which get her to begin running, evidenced by the sudden rush of wind and the sounds of quick footsteps I could hear from the speaker of my phone. "But of course, brother! I shall see you soon!" She declares, hanging up and leaving me to simply pocket my phone and sit down.

"Well team, the best thing we can do now is wait. No need to charge into things at this point, so we might as well relax." I tell them, before I feel Chell poking me in the side. "Yeah, kiddo?" I turn to face her, seeing her neutral expression as she points to the cave. Meanwhile, I see that Katrina looks a little panic stricken, while Lily and Alita just gape in the direction of the cave. Dani remains apathetic to the situation, while I raise an eyebrow in confusion. "What is it, kid?" I ask, to which Lily gestures to the cave. "W-well, it's just that Nesia ran off inside the cave, Sir." She meekly tells me, making me sigh in annoyance. Damn it, Ness. You haven't disregarded my advice before, so why start now? "Welp, we've gotta go in after her then. Come on, team! We need to get Ness outta there before she gets hurt." I quickly command them, running off into the cave with the rest of the team following close behind. When we enter, I immediately feel a shudder go down my spine as I feel the natural cool air fowling throughout the system of tunnels. However, Nesia is still nowhere to be found as of yet. "I can't find her in here, Jay! What do we do!?" Alita asks, not too sure about our next move. "Stick together! We stand a better chance of fighting off any Woobat we find if we stay close." I tell her, trying my best to calm her down even though I'm scared myself. As we walk into the cave, I suddenly feel a tug on my hoodie. Looking down at Chell, I see her point to the tunnel on the left. "I hear the sounds of fighting and explosions. If I'm not wrong, I think Ness went over there." She tells me, making me smile and give her a thumbs-up in thanks.

"Nice work, Chell. Now, come on!" I run off, quickly rounding the corner of the tunnel to see Nesia battling it out with a bunch of the Woobat. Well, battling it out might be an exaggeration, as the fight is a lot more one sided at a second glance. Nesia is bruised and scraped all over, and she's quite confused from all the Confusion attacks that the Woobat keep firing off at her, She's not even hitting any of her opponents, as her wild swinging only get her to hit the rocks around her and tire her out, evidenced by her panting. The Woobat are now quite bored of watching their confused target flailing around senselessly, and are preparing a bout of Toxic attacks, as their mouths begin to drip purple goo. This isn't good. If she gets poisoned, I won't be able to help her for a while. I don't have any antidotes, nor is the next town any closer than the one we left yesterday. "Ness, look out!" I shout, quickly running out to grab the confused Servine in my arms. The Woobat are shocked by my sudden appearance, their attacks momentarily interrupted. Upon feeling my arms wrap around her body, she growls and attempts to free herself from my grasp by biting me. "Ow! Come on, Ness, it's me!" I hiss, trying to get her to recognize me as I try to run back towards the rest of the team. "Team, I need some help! Blast them with your ranged moves!" I tell them rest of the team, the Pokemon quickly heeding my cry for help and using their ranged attacks to strike down some of the Woobat. However, the Woobat have gotten over their initial shock of seeing me suddenly barge into the fight out of nowhere, and continue their intended attack, launching a bout of purple spit balls at me and Nesia. Quickly turning my back to the attacking bats, I run like hell towards the rest of the team.

The sheer numbers of the Woobat once again works in their favor, as I get nicked on the hand and my face by some of the poisonous substance. It stings my skin, the feeling akin to that of flames licking my flesh. I can even see the poison seep into my skin, despite my best efforts to shake it off my body. The Woobat don't let up, deciding to keep on assaulting me with their blobs of toxins, before the rest of the team lends me a hand. Chell throws a Water Pulse to stun them, while Alita and Katrina use their Air Cutter and Dark Pulse attacks to take some of them out from a distance. However, there are simply far too many Woobat to keep track of, as for each one that they take out two more swoop in to take its place. Damn it, we're getting overrun! We won't be able to get outta here alive at this rate, but I don't think the rest of the team knows any area of effect moves that could cover such a large area! What to do, what to do…

During my thinking, I suddenly see that some of the Woobat are actually preparing to hit me with a barrage of Air Cutter attacks. For a second, I fear the worst. That is, until I see a large cloud of yellow spores fly at the attacking bats, stunning them and rendering them useless. Looking back at the girls, I see that Lily has decided to intervene in the fight by using a Stun Spore attack. Geez, that was close. A second later with that move and I would have been reduced to fleshy ribbons. "Great timing, Lily! Now, come on! We've gotta get out of here before more show up!" I command, the team quickly retracing their steps and moving out of the cave, with me following close behind. Chell and Katrina lead the way, finding the path that we used to get to Ness and backtracking to the entrance. Meanwhile, I keep a close look out behind the group, making sure none of the Woobat from earlier get a final sneaky hit in.

It doesn't take us long to find the exit to the cave, the sunlight visible from where I'm standing. I make a break for it, legging the final few meters out of the cave. I pant hard once I'm out of the dark cavern, feeling an indescribable sense of relief wash over me once I exit the cave. "Holy crap that was close…" I grin, before I see Dani posing to use a Razor Leaf attack on me. I quickly roll out of her trajectory, only for her leaves to strike a final Woobat behind me, causing the now wounded Pokemon to let out a final screech of pain and retreat back into the cave. "Whew, that was close. Thanks, girls. I owe ya one." I chuckle, getting the team to smile back at me before I address Dani and Lily. "Nice thinking, you two. You really helped us out back there." I grin, Lily smiling in response to the praise. "No problem, Sir. Although I really didn't do all that much…" She replies, getting me to shake my head. "What do you mean? Any later with that Stun Spore of yours, and I don't know what would have happened to me." I thank her, getting her to smile happily as I pat her on the head. I barely notice it, but I see Dani with a small smile on her face as well.

Suddenly feeling my strength leave my body, I opt to sit down under to cool shade of a tree. "Hey, team? I'm feeling a little… tuckered out, so could you… keep… an eye out… for my sister? She should… show up… any second…" I slur, growing more and more fatigued with each word I utter, before finally slumping fully against the trunk of the tree, getting the team to begin to panic. "Mister Jay! Are you okay!?" Chell cries, getting me to chuckle. "It's fine, kiddo… I just got… some poison… on me… is all." I breathe, now fighting to keep my eyes open as my Pokemon let out cries of alarm and huddle around me, each one of them now concerned for my well being as I feel myself begin to slip away. "Don't die, you idiot! You hear me!? Don't you dare fucking die on me!" Alita yells, a few tears threatening to spill from her eyes as she's helpless to save me from the detrimental effects of the poison. "Heh... I won't die… I just… need some… rest…" I mutter, before finally closing my eyes. God, I feel so tired…

[Skipping time!]

Ugh, my head. I feel like a truck just ran me over twice. Feeling my pounding head, the next thing I register besides the pain flowing throughout my body is that a cold towel has been put on my head. It isn't much, but it's helping to soothe the massive headache that's assaulting my senses right now. I hear the sounds of soft weeping next to me, which upon closer listening, sounds like Alita. Meanwhile, I pick up bits and pieces of a conversation. Well, more like a berating, but close enough. "… were you thinking!? He's dying because of you!" I hear Chell scream, most likely to Nesia. Her voice, although angry, is also carrying hints of panic. In order to quell their fear, I speak up. "Hey, now. No need to be so angry, kiddo. I'm not dying on you that easily." I croak, my voice being a mite hoarse for my liking. God, my throat feels like a desert. "Jay? Thank god you're okay!" I hear Alita sniffle, before she jumps on top of me using her small bird feet. Since she isn't exactly the lightest Pokemon in the group, she makes me let out an 'oof' upon feeling her weight connecting with my ribs. "You stupid idiot! Don't scare me like that!" She yells at me, making me groan in response to the sudden loud noise hitting my ears. "Yeesh, Ali. Quiet down, will ya? My head hurts like hell, and I don't need your voice adding to that." I tell her, trying to get her to pipe down a little.

Opening my eyes, I see that Chell is glaring daggers at Nesia, who's a little too focused on me to notice. Not that she'd care about the negativity directed at her, anyway. Nesia's face remains neutral as she stares at me, but her eyes tell me that she's feeling no small amount of regret in light of my current condition. Katrina is actually nowhere to be found, and neither are Lily and Dani. "Hey, girls? I'm a little thirsty. Is there any water?" I ask, to which Chell immediately hands me a bottle of water. "Here, Mister Jay. I found in your bag while you were sleeping. I hope you don't mind me looking through your things." She says, her expression softening in remorse once she sees my pitiful condition. Drinking a couple gulps of the stuff with Chell gently tipping the contents into my mouth, I feel my throat getting rehydrated as I drink up. "Ah, that's much better." I sigh, before I decide to readdress Nesia, who's still looking at me with her saddened expression. "Hey, Ness. You okay?" I ask, coughing as I see her look quite surprised, before she looks down in shame. "Why did you help?" She asks after a while, getting me to grin at her. "Simple. You were in trouble, and I decided to help." I reply, which makes her question me again. "But aren't you angry?" She timidly asks me, to which I nod. "No, I'm not. I was just really worried for your own safety, you silly. What if you died, huh? I'd never forgive myself if that happened to you." I sigh, looking at her to see what she'd do next.

To be honest, I was expecting her to huff and slither off into the trees or something, as I'd have gotten used to her arrogance and general haughtiness towards me by now. As such, for her to burst into tears and hug my chest tightly was completely shocking for me to feel and see. She slams into my chest with such force, that I end up actually getting the wind knocked out of me. "Oof!" I grunt, feeling her tears stain my shirt and chest as she sobs, her pent up guilt now pouring onto me metaphorically and literally. "I'm so sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" She cries, to which I reach up to gently stroke her scales in an attempt to comfort her. "Geez, what's wrong with ya now? I though you didn't care about me that much, with your new evolution and all." I muse, petting the crying Servine in my grasp as she cries her heart out. "I… got carried away…" She sniffles, getting me to shush her with a finger as I pet her and feel her smooth scales in my fingers. "It's fine, Ness. I get that the feeling of power is great." I soothe, getting her to continue sobbing as she buries her head in my chest again. "Master…Master! I'm so sorry, Master!" She sobs and cries in my chest, as I gently stroke her backside and wait for her to finish sobbing. I haven't heard her call me that for a while now, so to hear that again is a nice step in the direction of her personal respect towards me again. After a few minutes, she finishes up with her crying and simply holds onto me, enjoying my warmth. "You're so nice to me, Master. I don't deserve your kindness…" She sniffs, making me shake my head as I place my forehead against hers. I gently lift my finger to wipe her tears away giving her a genuine smile. "Yeah, you do. You just lost it for a bit. Just remember to show respect to others, alright?" I remind her, getting her to smile as she nuzzles my head with her own. "Yes, Master." She replies, getting me to smirk at her.

"You're really freaking cute when you smile, Ness. I ever tell you that?" I ask her rhetorically, making Ness giggle in response. She didn't giggle for long, but she did giggle nevertheless. "You have, Master. You're so silly." She replies, making me grin as Chell smiles happily upon seeing that her words have indeed gone through to her friend. I see Katrina show up from behind a bush, along with Lily and Dani who were still riding on top of her back. "You have awoken, I see." Katrina greets me with a relieved smile, to which I smile back at her and wave. "Yup, I'm up. Where'd ya run off to just now?" I ask her, getting Lily to show me a small, purple berry. "We found this for you, Sir." That's a Pecha Berry! "Nice work, girls! Thanks for finding this for me." I thank them, getting Lily to shake her head in response. "It wasn't hard to find at all, Sir." She smiles, indicating that she's happy I praised her nevertheless. She gets off of Katrina and hands me the berry, which I quickly eat in a single bite. Immediately, I can feel the poison getting negated by the berry's cleansing qualities. "Ahh, that feels good! Headache's gone now!" I sigh blissfully, already feeling way better than I was a couple of minutes ago.

As soon as I get revitalized, I hear the familiar sound of a certain white haired sister of mine. "Brother! I have found you!" Yupia exclaims, wrapping me into a hug. "Ack! I know, sis. I'm happy to see you too, but I can't really breathe…" I gasp, getting her to apologize and let me go. "So, what did you call me for, Brother?" She asks me. "We need some tools to help us find the two thugs in Wellspring. Let's go." I tell her, to which she smirks and holds up a sonar mapping device. "Then let us be off!"


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

[Jay]

With Yupia's prepared gear, we quickly head off into the deep cavern in search of the two Plasma thugs. As my exuberant sister leads the way, I make sure that all of her stuff is working in the way it is intended to, as to not end up losing ourselves in the deep network of caves. Nesia has since decided to trudge ahead and scout for any threats, using her agility to snake from one piece of rocky cover to the next. She's like a ninja, waiting for the right moment to strike. She did ask nicely before she did so this time around, and without any hair pulling needed. It's a huge step in the right direction, and I couldn't be any happier. Meanwhile, Chell and Katrina are walking along next to us, Chell being on guard with her scalchops raised and ready to slice any opposition to shreds. She does spare me the occasional glance, indicating that she feels rather upset that she had allowed me to get hurt like that. Alita has since taken to the air within the cave, scouting for any aerial intruders, as well as to keep track of any Woobat swarms that happen to be nesting on the ceiling above our little group. Katrina is keeping an eye out for the two recent tag-a-longs on her back, as well as to look out for any possible threats from the rear. Yupia is leading in the front, using her sound based map making device to create a basic layout of the cave.

The only reason she had decided that this thing was even required for the trip was that she didn't exactly find the maps of the cave accurate. And to be honest, I don't really blame her. Caves can change in their lay out from time to time, and it never hurts to be completely sure that a deep hole isn't right in front of you. As my thoughts wander for a little while, I'm suddenly snapped out of it by a wing tapping me on the head. "Hey. Be careful, there's a large group of bats up there." Alita whispers into my ear, using her head to gesture to the ceiling. Looking up, I see one of the larger bat groups up there. The area that we're standing under is covered in wings and blue fur, the small creatures lightly snoozing away while using their noses to stick to the ceiling. Chell tenses up, while I see Katrina's fur stand on end. On the feline's back, Lily looks fearful for her life and is shaking like a leaf, while Dani opts to hold the shaking Petilil closer, even though she looks quite scared of them herself. The sheer amount of Woobat is scary, and makes me wary. If a few splashes of poison could render me weak and helpless, how much could I take from those little bastards before I drop dead? I suddenly find the floor much more interesting, concentrating on my footsteps in an attempt to walk as quietly as possible. It seems to work, the Woobat still calmly snoring away as we eventually sneak out from underneath them.

I breathe a sigh of relief as we walk away from that particular area, Alita also sighing in relief. "Phew, that was close." She speaks up, to which Chell nods. She doesn't show it on her face, but her visibly relaxed posture tells me that she is also glad to be away from those little flying pests. "I concur. Let us finish our task quickly, so we can depart from this cave with haste." Katrina agrees, undoubtedly speaking for all of us as we unconsciously pick up the pace. The only one that seems to not even be the slightest bit phased is Yupia, who's still boldly striding ahead with her sonar mapping device in hand. She still has her big grin spread across her features, undaunted by the literal army of bats that we just passed. She's still keeping a straight face, even through all of that danger. Man, my sis is so cool… Meanwhile, she's humming a small tune in a possible attempt to lighten the mood. "This cave is quite lovely, Brother! Just the right amount of height in here, and the air makes it very cool, too!" She grins, making me smile in return to her positivity. "I agree, but it isn't as cool as you are, sis. Not by a long shot." I joke, making her roll her eyes at me.

"Since that was a compliment describing the full extent of my coolness, I shall forgive you for that terrible joke, Brother." She declares, placing her hands on her hips as she addresses me with annoyance. "Oh, thanks for your deep cavern-ous forgiveness Yu. For a second there I thought you were going to pun-ish me." I make another pun much to her chagrin, my grin only growing cheekier as Chell picks up on the joke string and giggles. As Katrina smiles, Alita groans in annoyance and rolls her eyes. Lily and Dani both begin to sport small smiles despite themselves, Dani chuckling at the pun as well as my sister's reaction. "Jay, no! Stop this chain of terrible puns this instant!" Yupia yells at me, while Alita slaps me upside the head with her wing. "Damn it, you idiot! Enough with the stupid jokes!" She groans in exasperation, before the two of the look at each other in surprise. "You hate his dumb jokes too?" Alita gawks, while Yupis nods, quite surprised herself. "Indeed I do! I thought all of you didn't have any problems with his horrible puns!" She replies, causing Alita to shake her head.

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it! He says way too many, all the time!" She sighs, beginning to vent her frustrations on my sister. "I know! He always says far too many!" Yupia replies, both seemingly on the same wavelength as each other when it comes to the hating on my sense of humor. "Are my puns really that bad? They can't be all that bad, right?" I sweat drop, seeing the two acting so negatively towards my jokes. However, a certain Dewott and Liepard tend to disagree. "Nonsense. Your jokes are perfectly fine." Katrina speaks up, Chell giving a little curt nod from where she's standing. She isn't speaking up, but her recent giggling, as well as the smile on her otherwise stoic expression gives me enough proof that she's a fan of my joking. "Seeing those two react to your jokes was the real funny bit." Dani smirks, pointing at the two fuming haters and getting me to chuckle as I nod in agreement. "Amen, sister. At least someone knows exactly how I feel about this." I smirk, happy that I finally found someone who more or less got the real butt of the joke. Lily seems to be happy as well, seeing me beginning to get along with the otherwise quiet Cottonee like this.

As we chat, I suddenly see Nesia drop down from the ceiling and slithers up to me. "There are footprints over there." She states, pointing to a trail of imprints made by what appear to be shoes in the mud ahead. Raising an eyebrow, I smile at the Servine. "Thanks a bunch, Ness." I grin, patting her scaly head and watching her smile as well, melting into my touch with a contented sigh. "Come now, Brother! The sooner we find those two criminals, the sooner we can get out of here!" Yupia calls for me, already rushing off in the direction that the footprints are hinting towards. Sighing, I cease my head patting and rush off to follow my eccentric little sister, running after her at a brisk pace as the rest of the team follows behind. Nesia sighs in disappointment, but she still follows behind us regardless. I soon catch up to her, finding her looking at the two goons who had stolen the girl's Drilbur. They're lying down on the floor, completely knocked out. As I approach them and take a closer look for myself, I can see that they're still breathing, the soft rising and falling of their chests indicating that much. As I crouch to observe them, I can barely see that they have some purple spots on their bodies in the dim light of Yupia's sonar mapping device, which don't seem to be too far off from a standard case of poisoning.

"It was most likely the Woobat that did this to them." Yupia speaks my mind, getting me to nod. Flipping one of the grunts over onto his belly, I can see the Drilbur we were looking for. It appears to be fine, aside from being knocked out. No signs of poison either, so that's always a good thing. "Alright, gang. Let's get these guys outta here, and return the Drilbur to that girl." I grunt, getting up by pushing on my knees. "Wait, we're helping these two get outta here?" Alita asks, getting me to nod. "But they stole that little girl's Pokemon! I say we leave 'em to die here!" She protests, anger spreading onto her face as she looks at the two before I shake my head to stop her. "But Alita, why would you want them to die anyway?" Yupia asks the Tranquill, who looks at my sister like she had grown a second head. "What!? They took the girl's Pokemon away! I say that's a damn good reason to want them dead!" She answers, glaring at the two conked out Plasma grunts. "Believe me, I want to as well. But, our human set of rules tells us to do otherwise. If not, we can actually be sent to jail for killing someone." I sigh, getting the Pokemon to look at me in confusion. "Jail?" Nesia asks, to which I begin to explain as I hoist one of the grunts onto my shoulder. "Well, jail is a place where you're sent after you do something really bad, like murder another human or Pokemon. Apparently, leaving the guy to die is the same as killing him in human rules." I grunt, feeling the full weight of the guy on my shoulders. God, this guy is heavy! The hell does he eat!? Bricks?

The team seems to get the point, Alita huffing in annoyance as she quiets down about it. "Your rules suck, Jay. Why do humans even have them? We don't need them, and we do just fine." She mutters, clearly ticked off by the system of the law that humans have implemented. "Well, most people say that it's because we're supposed to be the best and show off order and what not, but it's simply because we're the worst of 'em all. We're really evil, to be honest with ya. We've done lots of things that would make Ghost Pokemon have nightmares, and used Pokemon as slaves for mindless wars for over a millennium. I'm surprised that Arceus himself hasn't killed us all for being assholes yet." I chuckle wryly, to which Chell responds by holding my hand with her paw and shaking her head. "That's not true, Mister Jay. You're really nice to us." She speaks up, smiling warmly at me. "Agreed. You are quite the kind human." Katrina smiles, nuzzling my leg with her body to comfort me. "Yeah! You may be an idiot, but you're not an asshole." Alita adds, getting an affirming nod from Nesia. "I think you're really nice, Sir." Lily smiles, Dani nodding with a smirk of her own. Such a massive amount of support is so nice and leaves such a warm feeling in my chest… Damn it, I'm tearing up over here…

"Brother? Are you crying?" Yupia asks me, concerned as I turn away, the tears threatening to spill from my eyes as I smile in gratitude. "Damn it you girls, making me cry like this…" I choke out, a large smile on my face despite my watery irises. Alita smirks as Chell giggles, while the rest of the team smile at me with the same warmth that I had felt in my chest. Wiping my eyes, I gesture for them to follow me. "Come on, then. Let's get outta here. I dunno about you, but being in this cave isn't all too high on my list of to dos for today." I speak up, getting my sister to grin and nod as she points the sonar device forward. "Then let us get going, Brother! I wish to fight the next Gym before today is through, and I'd assume that you'd want to do the same." She tells me, causing me to shrug. "Meh, I'll do it tomorrow." I reply, to which Yupia stamps her foot on the cave floor in anger. "Brother, you must stop being so lazy! It is ridiculously counterproductive to do so!" She fumes, making me laugh at her raging expression. "Heh, I'm just kidding with ya. I'm going to fight Lenora later, so there's no need to plant your foot down about the matter." I joke, getting her to face palm hard as she groans in annoyance. "Brother, please. Your puns have gone on for long enough." She sighs, leading the way as we trek out of the cave.

Once we arrive outside, we quickly make our way to the nearest Police Station situated in Nacrene City, handing the two crooks over to the local Officer Jenny. "Thanks, you two. These guys aren't going to be let off easy, I'll say that much. I'll make sure this Drilbur gets back to that girl safely." She nods our way, getting Yupia to nod back with a wide grin. "No problem, Officer!" She replies, striding out of the station with me following right behind her. Outside, the team greets us. "So, how'd it go?" Alita asks. "Went pretty well. The girl should get her Pokemon back by the end of today." I reply, getting Katrina to smile at me. "Then, should we be heading off to battle with the next Gym Leader?" She asks, getting me to shake my head. "Not yet, Kat. Take a look at the time. It's about time for lunch, and I'm starving." I propose, before I hear Chell's stomach growling. The sudden strange sound causes a faint embarrassed blush to spread on the Dewott's face, to which I chuckle and Alita snickers. "Well, I'm not the only hungry one around. Let's eat, then we fight. No use in fighting on an empty stomach, am I right?" I smirk, while Yupia begins to walk away. "Well, I for one am not hungry. I shall fight the Gym now!" She states, before I hear a grumbling sound from her stomach as well. "That was nothing." She mutters, a look of embarrassment forming on her face. Sighing, I hold her hand and pull her towards the direction of the main city. "Come on, sis. Let's get ya something to eat." I sigh, shaking my head as I pull my flustered sister along for the ride to find a restaurant.

As I didn't have any opinions on what we were eating, I decided to let my sister choose our destination. Yupia being Yupia, she immediately settled on the one type of food she knows and loves. Taking a seat, we quickly order what we want for lunch. However, due to my Pokemon 'not being in their rightful containers' as quoted from the asshole of a manager who runs the place, I had to settle for taking a seat outside again. Chell didn't have much of a problem with it, and Nesia picked up pretty quickly on what to do with it. Soon, Nesia is filling her throat with helping after helping of the stuff, while Katrina enjoys the fish that came with her portion. As I look at her, a small dribble of white sauce drips from her lips as she eats. She is also eating quickly, making small slurping sounds as she enjoys her meal. Alita is pecking at her food, the sauce staining her beak in a fine red as she eats up. However, Lily and Dani were confused when it came to eating it, so I had to teach them how to. "So, basically, what you have to do is suck on it, so that it enters your mouth." I explain, eating up my fair share as Lily looks at the food. "But it's so long and hot, Sir! How do I suck on it?" She asks, to which I hold it closer to her face. "Just suck on it like you're breathing in air, but it's something else instead." I tell her, getting her to tentatively stick out her tongue and taste the tip of it. "It doesn't taste bad…" She comments, swirling the taste around in her mouth as Dani sucks up her food. "Hey, I think I got it!" She tells me, her voice muffled by the strand of spaghetti in her mouth.

Yeah, we were eating spaghetti. What do you think I was giving her, you perverts? No, that's wrong and disgusting, to take advantage of someone so innocent and cute. Get your minds out of the gutter right now! Anyways, back to the food.

Lily, after watching how Dani does it, lightly bites down on the strand of spaghetti and begins to slurp it up, the food disappearing into her mouth completely. Seeing her do so, I smile as I eat some of my own spaghetti. "Yup, that's the ticket." I nod, to which the Petilil decides to continue eating, taking more strands of pasta into her maw and slurping it up. Dani is eating much faster from her plate, slurping up the food with a speed and ferocity that seems to match Chell's when she was an Oshawott. Not that Chell does that anymore, to be honest. She's now eating with a much more reserved pace, slowly chewing and swallowing the bites of food she puts into her mouth, rather than inhaling the meal. I do see her look at the Cottonee voraciously eating the pasta with a disapproving expression a couple of times, which makes me almost do a double take the first time I see it. And to think she was the same Oshawott I had met not too long ago…

However, seeing her eat to quickly gives me a good idea for another pun. Or two. Or ten. "Hey, Dani. Why are you eating so quickly, huh? You look like you're about to pasta way." I joke, making Alita stop eating for a second to glare at me heatedly. "Really, Jay!? A pun, right now?" She sighs in annoyance, making me grin as Dani listens in with a smile of her own. "But Ali, think about it! There's so many pasta-bilities for jokes to be made here!" I reply, grinning wider as I see her fuming. "Damn it, you idiot! Now's not the time for this!" She groans in exasperation, shaking her head as Chell giggles from the sidelines. "Well, at least we know that this Mister Jay isn't an im-pasta." Chell snickers, allowing Katrina to nod in agreement at the Dewott's comment. "I agree. There isn't anything fishy about him at the moment, so we can tell that he is the real dill." Katrina adds with a sly smile on her face, making Alita fume even more, steam threatening to literally pour out of her ears as her face reddens in anger. "Really, you two!? Stop encouraging his stupid sense of humor!" She huffs, before reaching down to peck at her food again.

"Yeah, Ali. I'm basil-cally the real me this thyme." I grin, further annoying the Tranquil and getting her to slap me with her wing. "God, you're so annoying…" She groans and faces away from me, to which I smile. "But you don't really think so, do you?" I chuckle, getting her to begin stuttering as she replies. "L-like hell I don't! You're really annoying, you idiot!" She yells, her face beginning to flush red as I simply grin at her. "And I like you too, Ali." I wink at her, getting her face to become even redder with embarrassment as she ignores me with a huff. Dani simply snickers at the display, quickly understanding what her deal was with me. Lily, on the other hand, simply tilts her head in confusion. "Why does she stay if she hates you, Sir?" She asks me, not understanding what Alita was displaying. Nesia gets her attention with a vine tap to the side. "Master called her a tsundere once. It means that she likes him, even though she doesn't say so herself." She explains, further embarrassing the Tranquill. "No! I really hate him! His jokes are so bad, and he's so lazy! Just look at him!" She retorts, although her faint blush doesn't do much to prove her point. Katrina simply watches and shakes her head, smiling at the scene with her usual lax expression as she eats up. Although she does try to sneak some food from my plate, which I quickly notice. "Nope." I simply smirk while grabbing her tail, which causes her to pout.

Lunch continues with some more casual banter after that, and we quickly finish up and pay the bill. My sister quickly runs off to challenge the Gym herself, but not before bidding me farewell. Alita opts to fly close to the group for a change, not finding the view of a city from up there as exciting as the view of a forest. "Now that we've had lunch, I feel like challenging the Gym here. Sound good?" I ask the team, who nod back to me without much of a complaint. "Hell yeah! It's about time I got to fight!" Alita smirks, looking quite excited for the upcoming brawl. "Agreed. We have been training to use some new moves for a little while, so I suppose we should put them to good use." Katrina agrees, with Chell and Nesia nodding to show their readiness. "Okay, then. Let's go!" I shout, grabbing the attention of a few people around me, the passersby in question wondering just what this weird kid was on about.

It doesn't take us long to find the Gym, although we did have to ask for directions along the way. We were surprised when the guy we had asked for help had told us that the Library we had passed by on the way was in fact the Gym. Who would put a Gym inside a library? "Geez, the person who built this place must have been a huge nerd." Alita chuckles while looking at the sheer number of books on the shelves. After I had explained what a library was, she pretty much had the same kind of mind set ever since we had set off to find the thing. "Well, some people like reading and information." Nesia replies, seeming a little hurt about the fact that Alita would so shamelessly hate on a place like this. Patting her on the head, I comfort her troubled mind, allowing her expression of pain to melt into one of enjoyment as she feels the warmth of my hand against her cold scales. "It's okay, Ness. It just means that Ali isn't as educated as you, eh?" I chuckle, Nesia giggling a bit along with me as Alita feels the full extent of the burn. "What's that supposed to mean!?" She shouts, getting the attention of a few people in the library as we step through its doors. "Nothing much. But you're still pretty tough and strong yourself, eh?" I reply, which gets her to stop paying so much attention to the fact that I had insulted her intelligence. "Of course I am!" She agrees with me, albeit with a faint blush and a pause before she could answer me.

"Where is the Gym? There only seems to be a library here." Katrina asks, making me wonder as well. Maybe it's hidden somewhere? Gym leaders decide how the Gym is built after all, so maybe this certain Leader decided to hide theirs in order to challenge the trainers in question. Well, the best idea is to ask the librarian for answers. Walking up to the lady at the counter, I tap my finger on the desktop a few times to get her attention. "Excuse me, but could you tell me how to find the Gym in here?" Upon hearing my request, she simply smiles as her face adopts a look of understanding. "In order to find this Gym, child, you're going to have to solve this riddle." She tells me, causing me to nod. "Sure. Lay it on me, then." I nod, to which she begins to tell me in a whispering, cryptic fashion.

" _First think of the person who lives in disguise,_  
 _Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies._  
 _Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,_  
 _The middle of middle and end of the end?_  
 _And finally give me the sound often heard_  
 _During the search for a hard-to-find word._  
 _Now string them together, and answer me this,_  
 _Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?_ "

She asks, hinting towards the library. Nodding to show my thanks, I leave to find what she was describing. The only hint she gave me was that it was library related, so what am I even looking for? "Quite the odd choice of words." Katrina comments as she looks around the rows and rows of books, not really getting the lady's riddle. "That's what a riddle is, Kat." I tell her, to which Nesia tilts her head in confusion. "A riddle?" She asks, making me nod. "A riddle is a few sentences that hint to something. But what was that lady hinting towards?" I reply, trying to think about the library as a whole. "Forget the dumb hints! Let's just find the place ourselves!" Alita groans, before I shake my head. "It's hidden, remember? We can't find it unless we solve the riddle." I sigh, getting her to sigh in annoyance. Chell says nothing, but her frustration is telling me that she's basically stumped for this one.

I think about it for a bit longer, before I realize something. Someone who lies all the time and is in disguise? A spy, maybe? Something to mend the middle of middle and the end of the end? They both have the letter 'd' in them, so the letter? Finally, a sound made when finding a hard word. That I really don't know. A creature with a name that starts with spy. Spy, spy… Spy! There's only one creature I can think of that fits that requirement! "A spider!" I say out loud, running towards the biology section of the library with the team in tow. "Girls, I want you to find me a book with the word Spider in it. Can ya do that?" I ask to which Chell and Nesia nod, splitting up to find the book in question. However I quickly see a single book with the word Spider on the cover. "I swear to God, if this is a freaking hidden book switch…" I groan, pulling the book out to hear a click as the book leaves the shelf. The two bookshelves slide back to reveal a doorway into the depths of the Gym, which gets an eye roll from me. "Are you serious right now?" I mutter to myself, before setting my sights on the Gym leader standing in front of me, opposite the arena that I presume we are going to fight on.

"Welcome, challenger! I am Gym leader Lenora, and I congratulate you for coming this far. However, you still must defeat me to obtain my badge. Let us fight! Show me how you do battle with the Pokemon you have raised!" She declares, to which I nod with a grin. At this point, the rest of the team has arrived at my position. "Yeah! Let's do it!" I reply, ready to take the next step in achieving my goal.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

[Jay]

"Before we begin, how many Gym Badges have you gotten so far?" Lenora asks, to which I show her the single badge I have at the moment. The Gym system works in levels, where the more Badges you have, the harder the fights get. It's only fair. After all, not everyone starts off in the same place. Nodding, Lenora quickly throws out her first Pokeball and sends out her first Pokemon. The capsule opens up upon contact with the floor, revealing her Herdier in a flash of light. The Dog Pokemon lets out a loud bark upon seeing the setting it's in, getting into a battling stance as it glares at me. As much as Alita looks to be battle ready right now, I can see that Chell is itching for a confrontation as well with her paws having moved to her weapons. Smiling, I quickly make my choice.

"Okay then, Chell. You're up." I tell the Dewott, who takes her place out on the field and draws her scalchops. She seemed to be surprised when I called her name, but she allows herself a small smile when she enters the fight. It seems that I made the right choice this time, eh? "Hey! I wanted to fight too, you know!" She complains, before I shush her with a finger. "Come on now, Ali. Let the others fight this time, and I'll make sure you don't regret this choice later. I promise you'll get to fight the next time we have to." I tell her, giving her a smile with half lidded eyes for a little extra convincing. This makes her pause and blush a bit, before she reluctantly agrees. "Fine. But you'd better make this worth it, Jay." She warns, although she knew that I would regardless.

The Herdier quickly directs a menacing glare towards Chell as she steps onto the field, letting loose a growl of warning and anger that makes Chell freeze for a split second. She seems to be initially hesitant in fighting the dog, her eyes widening a bit in fear. Shit, the damn thing's using Intimidate! If it gets to her, It'll lower her attack stats. "Chell! It's fine, kiddo! You can beat him!" I call out to her, allowing her enough confidence to shake off the attempted Intimidate quickly and refocuses her attention onto the Herdier. However, even a fraction of a second can prove to be a great distraction, and this distraction simply solidifies that point. Before Chell could recover successfully, the Herdier had already moved from its original spot and is now rushing at Chell with a surprising speed. I'm so panicked by this sudden burst of speed and the yellowish energy building around the opposing Pokemon, I can barely make out Lenora's now smirking expression. "Now, Herdier! Use Take Down!" Before Chell or I could react, the Herdier's head makes contact with Chell's chest, scoring a direct hit with the powerful Normal Type move and sending the Dewott flying.

Chell yelps in pain as she's flung a few feet by the powerful charge that the Herdier had sent her way, eventually skidding to a halt using her feet. She seems pretty winded by the sudden head bash, as it hit her fast and hard. She manages to stay standing, but she isn't looking too good. Lenora is looking at her with a somewhat sad expression, assuming the match to e over already. Not that I blame her. Chell did take quite the hard hit just now, so I hope she can pick herself back up after this one. "Chell! You okay!?" Alita calls out to her friend, concern quickly showing from her expression. Lily looks on in shock and fear for the Dewott's well being, while the rest of the girls don't seem to be as phased, as they most likely have seen all this happen before. "Come on, kiddo! Fight through it!" I tell her, getting her to finally compose herself and stare the Herdier with a glare of her own, readying her blades for battle.

Lenora is surprised that Chell had managed to keep standing after such a powerful hit, but she smiles challengingly at me nevertheless. "Well, well, well! For a moment there I had thought your Dewott would have been down and out for the count, but it seems I was wrong." She raises an eyebrow as she talks, getting me to smirk at her in response. "Chell's tough, ya know. It's gonna take much more than that to get her out of the fight." I retort, getting the Nacrene City Gym Leader to laugh heartily. "I see, but can you and your Pokemon defeat me? Herdier, use Bite!" She commands, the dog Pokemon quickly growing before lashing out, jaws opened wide and ready to tear a chunk out of Chell. However, the Herdier is still a considerable distance away from Chell, which gives me time to formulate a counter attack plan as it tries to close the gap. "Use Water Pulse to stun it!" I command, Chell quickly forming an orb of water with both paws before tossing it out at the Herdier, the ball hitting the ground next to the dog. The sphere explodes on impact with the floor of the arena, the Herdier within its blast radius and rendering it stunned.

Smirking, I quickly seize the opportunity to use some attacks of my own in order to wear down the opposition. "Chell, use Razor Shell!" I command, Chell quickly rushing forward to strike at the Herdier with her scalchops. She lands in quite a few solid hits, her rapid barrage of slashes and cutting moves really sinking into the Herdier and dealing some good damage. "No, Herdier! Get outta there!" Lenora yells, but the Herdier is a little occupied at the moment. The concussive blow from an explosion doesn't wear off instantly, after all. The opposing Dog Pokemon is shocked out of its stunned state due to the sudden pain, and yelps out in pain as it is forced to retreat from the onslaught of blades. Chell tries to advance to continue her attacking, but she doesn't notice the Herdier crouching, readying another attack to throw at her.

She doesn't realize how close she is to getting a few extra cracked ribs, but I do. "Chell! That's enough, move to the left before it gets you again!" I shout, Chell quickly obeying my order and stopping her assault, just in time for Lenora to issue another attack command to her Pokemon. "Now, Herdier, use Take Down!" She yells, making the Herdier lunge forward and attempting to smash into Chell again, its body glowing a yellowish energy as it charges up its own energy while running. Yeah, no. I was expecting that little trick this time. Chell's sidestep puts her out of the way of the move, which causes the Herdier to hit naught but air. It doesn't seem to be able to change its charging direction, so that works in my favor. I smirk, knowing that Take Down does take a bit of health off of the user. As if proving my thoughts, the Herdier stops in its tracks, panting as it begins to suffer the full effects of the two rounds of Take Down it had used, the cuts that Chell had inflicted on it only serving to further weaken it. Seeing the damage that her Pokemon had suffered, Lenora's brow begins to furrow as she tries to think of a solution to get out of this bind.

However, I take the Herdier's moments of weakness to allow Chell to use another attack. Since the Pokemon moves so damn quickly, I need to find some way to slow it down. And seeing the water still stuck to its fur due to the Water Pulse, gives me an idea. "Chell! Use Ice Beam on the Herdier!" I command, Chell quickly charging up and firing a beam of light blue energy. "Quickly, Herdier! Dodge the attack!" Lenora commands, her Pokemon moving out of the path of the beam in an attempt to dodge. The beam itself misses it's intended target, but the icy energy freezes the water still sticking to the fur of the Herdier on contact, immediately forcing the Pokemon to keep moving to avoid being frozen solid. It's dodging the attacks pretty well, but by the way its panting hard, it doesn't look too good for Lenora. Lenora grits her teeth, knowing that her Herdier won't be able to go on for much longer.

"Herdier, use Take Down again!" She orders her Pokemon, the Herdier readying one last charge as it surrounds itself in a yellowish aura again. Chell may still be on her feet, but another hit or two just may end up grounding her for good. "Chell, Water Pulse again!" I shout, Chell forming another orb of water and flinging it at the charging Herdier. At that range, the attack would have missed the opposing Pokemon… if it could have dodged the blow. Instead, the Water Pulse crashes right into the face of the Herdier, making it dazed and causing it to trip over its own legs. The dog Pokemon quickly loses its aura as it trips over and lands in a heap in front of Chell, passed out. Chell visibly relaxes as she claims the first round of the fight, as I sigh in relief. She took some really hard hits, though.

"Herdier is unable to continue! The first match goes to Jay!" The referee announces, signaling the beginning of a small reprise in the Gym battle. "Nice going, Chell!" Alita cheers, getting Chell to look back and smile in light of the praise. "Nice work, kiddo." I grin, giving the Dewott a thumbs-up in congratulations for her victory, getting her to smile wider as she hears my appreciation. Lily had been staring at the match in awe, and seemed pretty happy at seeing Chell's win. Meanwhile, Lenora sighs as she approaches and crouches down to take a look at her Herdier. "You fought well, my friend. Take a break." She tells her Pokemon as she returns it to her ball, before standing up to face me with a grin. "Well done, young trainer! I haven't had anyone who could beat my Herdier the first time in a while!" She puts her hands on her hips as she addresses me, obviously impressed by Chell's strength. "Thanks, Lenora. But Chell here deserves most of the credit." I reply, Chell blushing a bit in response to my honest words.

Smirking, Lenora returns to her side of the field and readies her second Pokeball. "Not only strong, but humble as well! I like that about you, kid. But that ain't gonna be enough to win this fight! Go, Watchog!" She declares, tossing out her second Pokeball to reveal the large Rodent Pokemon that Katrina is all too familiar with. It crosses its arms once it sees the confines of the arena, staring Chell down with no shortage of battle readiness. Chell, however tired as she is, returns the gesture with a glare of her own regardless of her physical condition. Both look ready to throw down, before the referee makes the announcement. "Are both sides ready to fight?" He shouts, to which I raise a hand to signal a time out. "The challenger wishes to change Pokemon!" The referee raises the challenger's flag in response to my request, nodding at me to signal the allowance of a time out.

Chell, hearing the announcement, rushes over to me and looks at me in confusion. "Mister Jay?" She asks, looking rather concerned for whether she had messed something up or not. "It's alright, kiddo. You did well, but you don't look too good to be able to fight this one." I tell her, pointing to the opposing Watchog in response. "That Watchog's not weak, and you've already taken quite the beating. If you take this fight as well, you might get hurt real bad." I plead my case with her. but she shakes her head as she smiles at me. "No, Mister Jay. If I can help you by fighting hard for you, then I'll do it. Besides…" She starts, before blushing a bit. "You've done so much for me already…" She trails off, averting her gaze from mine as she says so. Chell's been stoic and serious for a little bit now, so for her to suddenly say this throws me for a loop, big time.

Damn it all, she's so freaking cute when she's smiling or blushing, so a combo of both those things makes me freeze dead in my thoughts. She's showing such a large level of devotion to my cause, and she isn't even getting much in return. I guess… this is what having a good friend feels like, huh? It's… it's nice. I know that the Oshawott evolutionary line is quite valiant when fighting, and will often fight to the very end in most cases. But still, to feel this kind of care for me of all people, I simply cannot say no to her. "Alright, if that's really how you feel about this. I'll let you fight on then, Chell." I nod to her, causing her face to light up a little more as her smile grows in size. "I won't let you down, Jay!" She replies, making me smile a little myself. "I know you won't, kiddo. Now, get out there and kick some ass!" I encourage her, to which she nods and draws her scalchops, facing down her opponent.

Lenora is definitely surprised by my sudden choice, as she quickly questions my decision. "Are you sure about this? Your Dewott isn't in the best condition right now, so I thought you surely would have switched Pokemon for our second fight." She admits to me in an almost judging manner. "I agree, Sir. She isn't looking too good right now." Lily agrees with the Gym Leader's statement, finally having the courage to tell me. However, I shake my head while seeing Katrina's knowing smile. "I believe in her, and she believes in herself as well. So, who am I to stop her?" I reply, causing both Lily and Lenora to look at me in surprise. Lenora doesn't stay that way for long though, as she breaks out into laughter. "I see! You really do care about your Pokemon and how they feel, don't you? They're really lucky to have someone like you looking after them, I can say that much!" She smirks, before she returns her attention to the fight about to happen.

Lenora nods back to the referee, who gets the message that the fight needs to resume. "Let the battle continue!" The referee announces, waving the flag to continue the match as planned. "Use Retaliate, Watchog!" Lenora commands, her Pokemon quickly surrounding itself in a red colored aura and running up to Chell with a fist thrown back. The Watchog's eyes begin to glow a bright red that makes it almost eerie to observe as it rushes towards Chell, dead set on making it's punch connect. Shit, this does not bode well for us. Retaliate is a move that does twice the amount when another Pokemon has fainted right before it's used. And factoring that the Watchog has the same typing as the move it's using, which means that the move gains extra power due to the typing match… Let's just say that particular punch is gonna hurt like hell if it connects with Chell. But, I'm not about to let that happen.

"Chell, use Water Pulse to break it's focus!" I command her, getting Chell to quickly form another sphere of water in her hand and throw it at the charging Watchog. Rataliate, although powerful, can only be activated once after a partner has fainted. It also needs a ridiculous amount of focus to pull off every time, so retrying it after the initial power boost given to the move after a teammate has fainted is quite impractical. As such, the move is like a gamble. High risk, with high reward. And I'm sure as hell not goimg to let Lenora reap the rewards of such a big move. The Water Pulse would have worked on the Watchog and stopped its advances… If it had been running towards Chell in a straight line. However, Lenora proves to me that she isn't a Gym Leader for no reason at all.

"Watchog, dodge the Water Pulse!" She commands, the Watchog effortlessly moving out of the way of the attack to continue its intended trajectory towards the Dewott. As the Water Pulse splashes harmlessly onto the floor of the arena, I'm stunned. How the hell did it dodge that so well? Retaliate takes a monstrous amount of focus to pull off in any case, so the Watchog should have been too distracted by keeping its aura intact to dodge like that! Damn it, Lenora trained her Pokemon good. Regardless of the amazing level of focus maintenance that her Watchog has, this is still a fight that I don't intend to lose. "Chell, use Water Gun in its face to try and throw it off course!" I shout, desperately trying to get Chell to fire away at the Watchog to try and direct his damage somewhere else. However, Lenora isn't about to let me have my way. "Dodge them, Watchog! Hit that Dewott!" She commands, the Watchog dodging all of the blasts of water with ease, before finally getting close enough to land the hit in.

The second the aura imbued fist connects with Chell's body, she immediately crumples over. The sheer force of the punch causes her to drop her scalchops and sends her flying out of the arena bounds. She crashes into the wall of the Gym, leaving a considerable indent in the wall before slumping to the floor. She's clearly conked out, her body unmoving with swirls in her eyes. The Watchog stands victorious, smirking at the downed opponent courtesy of its own handiwork. Well, shit. "Dewott is unable to continue! The second round goes to Lenora!" The referee announces, signaling for me to choose my next team member. Rushing over to her side, I quickly use my hand to prop her up into a sitting position. She manages to crack open her eyes and look at me, her expression that of sadness and regret.

"I'm so sorry, Jay. I couldn't…" She starts, before I shush her with a finger to her lips. "It's fine, kid. You did your best, so now take a break and let the others pick up where you left off." I reply, smiling gently at her as I scoop her up into my embrace and carry her back to my side of the arena. She returns the gesture with a weak smile of her own, letting me lie her injured form down onto the bench. "Now, take it easy, kiddo. The others will take care of this one." I soothingly tell her, to which she nods. Sparing her one last look, I divert my attention to the Watchog that downed my Pokemon. It's not a pushover by any means, that's for sure. I've seen what it can do, but it's most damaging move has already been used. As such, I feel a bit more willing to send Nesia into the fight, even though the smooth, barren terrain and the speed of the opposing Pokemon make it a little hard for her to find cover and strike from a safe distance. On first thought, it seems to be the right choice.

However, I'm quickly interrupted in the middle of my thinking process when I suddenly feel a soft, purple tail wrap around my hand and squeeze. The squeeze isn't too tight, but it's enough to tell me that Katrina wants something. "Hmm? What do you need, Kat?" Looking in her direction, I quickly take notice of her narrowed eyes and her alert stance as she stares the Watchog down. "I wish to battle this time, Jay." She speaks up, her response plain and simple as she swishes her tail in a threatening manner. It would appear that seeing her friend knocked out by the same Pokemon she harbors a deep hatred for has triggered her will to fight. "Alright then, if that's what you want. Go out there and get yourself some vengeance, Kat." I nod to her, to which she nods back in determination and takes the field. By the way her body is already hunched down and her fur is standing on end, it would appear that her body is already on high alert, ready to deliver a hefty beat down on the Watchog.

I nod towards the referee, signaling that my choice has already been made. Nodding in reply to my decision, he raises a flag to inform Lenora of my final choice. "The challenger has chosen a Pokemon to continue the fight! The battle shall now resume. Are both sides ready?" He asks us one final time, both of us nodding in response. "Then let the battle continue!" He announces, the fight quickly initiated by Lenora's command. "Watchog, use Hypnosis!" She tells her Pokemon, whose eyes immediately begin to glow a light blue as they charge up on psychic power, intent on hypnotizing her and rendering her unable to fight. "Kat! Don't look at the eyes! Break its attack with Sucker Punch!" I tell her, shielding my own sight from the alluring gaze of the Watchog's maneuver. Katrina reacts quickly and jumps out of the sight range of the opposing Rodent Pokemon before it can unleash the move on her, landing a quick paw bash onto the top of it's head with a paw enclosed in dark aura. The force of the blow immediately disperses all the charged energy that the Watchog had been saving up, on top of making it stunned due to the sudden interruption of its move and the after effect of the residual dark energy stacked in Katrina's paw. Damn, that chop to the head looks like it hurt. The Watchog is still standing, albeit looking a little groggy in its movements.

"Oh no, Watchog!" Lenora shouts, unable to command her Pokemon to react to the threat in time. Katrina's speed has definitely improved, I'll give her that. However, it doesn't seem to be enough to take the Watchog out completely, as it's still standing on its feet and glaring daggers at the Liepard. That Sucker Punch did do a good hit on it, but it's not out of the fight just yet. "That's it, Watchog! Don't give up!" Smirking, Lenora gazes back at me and Katrina in order to figure out her next move. I do the same, my focus switching from Katrina to the Watchog, and back again. That thing isn't slow, and can tank a few good hits as it had previously demonstrated. If I'm going to win this bout, I need to come up with something that does lots of damage, and is easy to use. Think brain, think! "Use Crunch!" Lenora suddenly shouts, interrupting my thoughts as I see her Watchog running towards Katrina with jaws open wide, its teeth shimmering in a faint blackish aura in the light of the arena. This isn't good. Crunch isn't a weak move, and makes the target's special attack decrease if it connects. It's basically a move that provides twice the value.

As much as I hate to use a poorly thought out plan of action, I hate seeing my girls get hurt even more. "Katrina, dodge and counter with Scratch!" I command, the Liepard quickly dashing around the chomping teeth of the Watchog and slashing it in the chest with extended claws. Yowling in pain, the opposing Rodent Pokemon is forced back and stops its attack, but is still unable to avoid another slash on its arm that leaves a shallow gash on the area. "Now, switch to Pursuit!" I tell her, causing Katrina to change up her attacking pattern from cuts to punches. "Watchog, Use Crunch to stop that cat!" Lenora tries to get her Pokemon to counter, but Katrina simply proves to be too fast, her dark energy infused paws pummeling away at the Watchog in rapid succession, making sure to avoid all of its attacks with her agile and graceful movements.

The strikes, although not as strong as a blow from a Sucker Punch or a Dark Pulse, more than make up for it due to their ease of use and decreased charge time. The Watchog is fast, but Katrina is faster, allowing for the Liepard to easily dodge and counter attack whenever she deems it to be necessary. The Watchog's Crunch attacks get sloppier and sloppier as time drags on, soon leaving it too weak to attempt another attack. "Now, Katrina! Finish it with a Dark Pulse!" I shout, Katrina bashing the Watchog in the face once more before using the force of her strike to launch herself backwards into the air. Charging up a sphere of shadow energy in her maw, she fires it at the Watchog with full force. The resulting beam of energy slams into the opposing Pokemon head-on, knocking it out completely as it falls to the floor and lays there, unmoving.

"Watchog is unable to battle! The winner of this Gym Battle goes to Jay!" The referee declares, raising the challenger's flag to signal our victory over the Nacrene City Gym Leader. Lenora, shaking her head and sighing, returns her Watchog into its Pokeball. Walking up to me, she puts her hands on her hips as she cracks a smile. "Well done, Trainer! You have beaten me in a fair fight, and as such you are entitled to the prize of a Normal Badge." She nods approvingly, holding out a shiny badge of a purple crystal in a golden frame. "Thanks, Lenora." I grin, putting the badge into my badge case with the Trio Badge. Walking over to my team, I hug Chell and Katrina. "Thanks, you two. You really did good out there." I thank them, both of them smiling in response to my gratitude. "That was not too much of a challenge." Katrina smirks, making me roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Now, let's get Chell to the Pokemon Center. She's roughed up pretty bad, and I'd like to catch a break anyway. Sound good?" I ask the team, who all give some agreeing nods in reply. "Yeah, I'm pretty beat. Let's go and get some sleep!" Alita cheers, causing me to sweat drop. "But you didn't even fight anything, Ali. How could you be tired?" She responds by rolling her eyes and groaning. "I didn't get to battle, remember?" She deadpans, causing me to sigh and nod. "Okay, fine. I get your point."

Once we exit the Gym, we quickly make a beeline for the Pokemon Center. I waste no time in entering and asking the Nurse Joy there for help. "Welcome to the Pokemon Center. How may I help you?" She asks, to which I gesture to the Dewott in my arms. "Well, my friend here needs healing." I tell her, getting her to nod and call for her Chancy. "She'll take care of your Dewott for you, sir. Just wait for a couple of hours and it should be as good as new." She replies, Chancy taking Chell away for healing. "Thanks, Doc." I nod, before I see two hooded, shady looking people looking at me from afar. However, they quickly realize that I'm looking at them, and hurriedly excuse themselves from the premises. What the hell? "Those two seem off." Nesia speaks up. "I agree." Katrina adds in agreement. "Should we follow 'em? They seem suspicious." Dani suggests, looking at the two leave the scene and heading to Pinwheel Forest.

"Yeah, let's." I forward the agreement, walking off after them with the team in tow. What are they up to? "They better be worth giving up my nap for!" Alita huffs, causing me to roll my eyes as I smirk.

 **Author's Note: Guys, it's happening! Roccer is headed off to the next step in becoming either a hard worker of dedication to society, or a slave to the needs of the many: College! I'm in the middle of applications now, and I've applied to some pretty top notch schools, like the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia. I'm considering applying to American Universities, cause 'Murica! And due to personal reasons of studying Economics. For any of you that are about to apply or plan to apply for Canada as well, I feel ya. And for those that have already done so, hook me up! I could use all the help you can provide. And to all of you out there that have stuck with this lazy-ass author who only updates once a week: Merry Christmas!**

 **Wish me luck, and best of days to you all,**

 **Roccer**


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

[Jay]

Tailing those two didn't turn out to be that hard. I mean, who the hell wouldn't notice two shady figures in cloaks? Makes whoever's wearing one stick out like a sore thumb. They did regard me with some level of fear, though. Me, as well as the rest of the team minus Chell, are currently following the two hooded people through the City. Things take a turn for the annoying when we reach the main part of the City, as a large crowd has formed there. They seem to be in celebration of an event, and the two hooded figures are already taking advantage of the gratuitous distraction. They seem to be in a real hurry, avoiding the large crowds and slipping through smaller ones to get to their destination. Crap, this isn't good for us. Since there are two of them and so many of us, we're getting slowed down by the people around us and we'll end up losing them in a crowd this big. However, problems like these aren't that hard to get around, and simply require a different point of view.

Turning to look at Alita, I quickly point to the wide open sky. "Ali, I need you to spy on those two from above. We'll lose them in the crowds otherwise." I tell her, to which she nods. "Got it!" She replies, taking to the air in order to have a better chance of finding those two figures. Meanwhile, the rest of us try our best to navigate through the crowd, pushing and slipping our way through the horde of people. By the time as we manage to leave the cheering, celebrating mass behind, we've already taken more time then I had expected. "Damn, that took a while." I mutter to myself, checking on the team. They've done well, Katrina keeping Lily and Dani on her back, while Nesia used her natural slimness and agility to her own advantage to move through the crowd. Alita is right up ahead from our position, and she's hovering above a sign that points to a crossroads. "They made a turn over there!" She tells me, using her beak to gesture to the left side of the crossroad, indicating that those two goons went over to the local ranch. Raising an eyebrow, I follow the Tranquill, who's already taken off to chase after the two. What would those guys want to do with a ranch of all places?

Upon my arrival, I can see a farmer staring off at a path that just passes by the entrance to the farm. By the looks of the footprints on said path leading to the pen with a bunch of Mareep inside, and the distressed look on the farmer's face, I can tell that some people had just passed by the area and did something. As I approach him, my guess is proven right. "What happened here?" I ask him, to which the guy just turns to me with an expression of slight relief. "Please help me, young man! Those two hooded men just took my Mareep and ran off!" He pleads with me, getting me to nod. "Got it. Don't worry, old man. We'll get your Mareep back." I reply, looking at the team and seeing them nod towards me as well. "Thank you, young Trainer! Stay safe out there in the woods! If you see my grandson, make sure to help him out! He may be lost in there trying to chase after those two." The farmer warns me as I run off into the forest, my team not far behind.

Upon my entry into the forest, my ears are flooded with the sounds of hissing and scuttling. The sounds immediately cause me to become more alert, as Lily and Dani tense up in slight fear in response to the sounds of Bug Type Pokemon wandering just out of sight. Nesia is a mite nervous herself, looking at the varying trees and bushes with no shortage of caution. Their caution is completely understandable, as Bug Types pose a large threat to Grass Types like themselves. Noticing this, I scoop the three of them into my arms and hold them close. "No worries, girls. Nothing's hurting you if I have anything to say about it." I reassure them, Lily immediately relaxing in my embrace and giving me a shaky smile. "Thank you, Sir." Lily quietly tells me, still showing some amount of fear, but snuggles into my arms regardless. "Thank you, Master. You're so kind…" Nesia smiles at me too, resting her head on my chest and giving off a look that is way too cute for me to take.

"Don't worry, guys! If those stupid bugs show up, I'll make sure I kick them back to whatever hole they crawled out of for messing with you!" Alita huffs as she flies over my head, comforting the nervous Grass Types in her own way. Katrina nods in agrrement as her ears swivel and flick on her head, doing her best to look out for any bugs that may prove to be a problem for us. "You heard them, girls. You needn't worry, cause we'll make sure those Bug Types buzz off quick." I joke, making Alita groan. "Damn it, you idiot! Now's not the time for your lame puns!" She huffs, making me grin in response. Despite themselves, Nesia and Dani can't help but crack a small smile. While Katrina spares the joke a grin, Lily can't help but giggle herself, most of the tension destroyed by the dumb joke I just made.

Now that I've made my way into said forest, I need to hurry up and find the Mareep those two guys stole in order to leave the forest. Bug Types are some of the most territorial and aggressive of the bunch, and to piss some of them off basically means signing your own death warrant. The local Sewaddle and Venipede aren't much trouble on their own, but facing off against a large group of them is suicide. Ever been poisoned before? Yeah, it doesn't feel too good, and weakens you considerably. Combine that with the nibbling and biting jaws of hundreds of the little fuckers on you all at once, and you'll be reduced to a skeleton in no time at all. I'm really damn lucky that these things hate the taste of human flesh for some reason, but my team isn't so lucky. Bug Types are no strangers to consuming the flesh of other Pokemon with extreme prejudice, especially Grass Types like Petilil, with their juicy bulbous heads full of nutrients. As such, I need to make absolute certain that we don't get overwhelmed.

"Katrina, can you find anything that might lead us to those two assholes?" I ask the Liepard, who's still eyeing the ground and sniffing away at the air for any traces of where those Pokemon stealing goons could have gone off to. Fortunately, Katrina is already on it. "The scent of Mareep's blood is coming from that direction, but it's not strong by any means. Whatever the case, we need to hurry." She replies, getting me to nod. "Alright, Kat. Lead on." I tell her, to which she sprints off at a slower pace for me to follow behind, the rest of the team having no problem catching up to the feline at her current speed. If she can smell the Mareep's blood, that means one of two things. Either the two goons accidentally injured the Pokemon, or the Bug Types have already gotten to them first… Shuddering, I push the second option out of my head, not wanting to think of any imagery to go with that thought.

As we run along I suddenly notice out of the corner of my eye a red roofed building just sitting there in a clearing. It's got the Pokemon symbol on it, but it isn't exactly a Pokemon Center. If it isn't a Pokemon Center, then it's most likely a Ranger Base, where the Rangers employed by the PROs hang out and deal with threats to other Trainers in the forest areas. They also do patrols around the area every now and then, with each base covering quite a large area with their Rangers. They have a schedule, but they're always ready to help out any Trainer in need. That reminds me of Chell, who's still healing up. "Hold on, Kat. I need to get Chell first." I tell the feline, who nods as she stops the rest of the team and waits for me to do so. I might end up needing her skills for this problem, so I quickly check in and request to use their Pokemon Transfer Device in order to send Chell back to my position. Once her Pokeball ends up at my end, I quickly open it to let her out. "You feeling alright, kiddo?" I ask her, concerned for her mental state. She seems shaken up a bit, but is otherwise fine and nods to indicate that she is. "Good. Now, there's a problem involving some Team Plasma Goons again, and I need your help. Can you help me with that?" "Sure thing, Mister Jay." She replies, and follows me off into the woods, down the trail that Katrina had pointed towards.

Once we arrive at the scene, I see two things. One, the two thugs still have the Mareep in hand, said Pokemon still relatively unharmed save for a cut on its cheek. Hey, at least the bugs didn't devour it first. Two, there's a really familiar looking kid trying his best to slow down their advances into the forest. "I know that kid!" Alita comes to a realization, getting me to nod in reply. "Yeah, that's him alright. Now, we need a plan to do this quickly and get everyone out safe. So, here's what I need you girls to do…" I tell them, getting into the details of my plan behind some bushes as the boy dukes it out with the grunt. "Hey, beat it kid! We're just minding our own business, so get lost already!" The two thugs have shed their clothes at some point, revealing them to be none other than Team Plasma. I figured those morons would take away the Mareep, but what for? Meanwhile, the kid has them locked in a Pokemon battle, his Purrloin kicking the crap out of the goon's Patrat. "No way, you creeps! You're trying to take away my grandpa's Mareep, and I'm not gonna let that happen!" The boy shouts, while his Purrloin lands one last Pursuit attack to finish off the Patrat, leaving it with swirls in its eyes. "No, Patrat!" The goon shouts, frustrated by the Purrloin's resilience. His buddy isn't all too happy about it either, sighing in annoyance at his partner.

"Really, dude? You lost to a Purrloin?" She sighs in annoyance, while the guy returns his fainted Patrat and rolls his eyes in annoyance at the snide comment. "He's pretty freaking tough, ya know! I wouldn't have lost to 'em otherwise." He tries to defend his own pride, before the female grunt simply pulls out a Pokeball of her own. "Yeah, whatever dude. Let me show you how to really liberate a kid's Pokemon! Go, Liepard!" She grins, throwing out her own Pokeball to reveal the larger, evolved form of the kid's Purrloin. The Liepard smirks at the pre-evolution, readying for what should no doubt be an easy fight. "You asked for this, brat. You didn't piss off when we asked you nicely, so now we're gonna liberate your Pokemon, too!" The female grunt smirks, facing down the child with a look of superiority. The kid looks nervous about this sudden challenge, but stands his ground regardless, unwilling to back down. "There's no way I'm going to lose to people like you!" He growls while his Purrloin hisses angrily at its evolved form, ready to fight it out to the end.

From how the opposing Liepard looks, it's not weak. The kid probably would have lost anyway, if it weren't for my timely intervention. "Now!" I give the signal, getting the team to spring the plan into action. Chell quickly jumps out over the bush and lobs a Water Pulse right into the Liepard's face, the sphere of water exploding at point blank range and stunning the feline. "What the!?" The female grunt yells, not expecting an attack to come out of nowhere. With the Pokemon stunned, Nesia quickly lashes out with her vines to ensnare the Mareep and pull it out of harm's way. Nesia quickly puts it into my arms, the Pokemon looking up at me with a look of surprise as it struggles to get free. "Don't worry. I'm here to help." I tell it, getting it to calm down enough for me to hold it safely. Lily begins to secrete her Stun Spore, the yellowish cloud of paralyzing particles sped up by the Gust provided by Alita's wing flapping. The spores latch onto the clothes of the grunts and the fur of the Liepard upon contact, the effects of the particles setting in immediately and rendering the grunts and their Pokemon unable to move. The two Plasma goons struggle to reach their belts and pull out their antidotes, but the paralysis they're afflicted with allows me to step in quickly and relieve them of the healing items. "Hey! Give 'em back, you brat!" The guy grunt yells, before he and his partner are promptly knocked out by Chell's scalchop to the head.

The boy looks rather surprised at what's happening, until he sees the face of the guy helping him out. "It's you!" He cries out, a large smile on his face. Smiling back at him, I wave hello. "Yup, it's me. Heya, Joey." I grin, seeing the young kid and his very same Purrloin that I had beaten a while back. As his Purrloin approaches me with a casual expression on its face, Joey looks to me with an expression of gratitude. "It's been a while, Joey. How's it going?" I ask him, to which he grins as he uses a hand to pet his Purrloin. "It's been great! I've finally convinced my parents to take me to a place where I could learn more about Pokemon!" He tells me excitedly while his Purrloin purrs in content from the petting, getting me to grin. "Good on ya, then. You helping your grandparents on their farm nowadays?" I question him further, causing him to respond with another nod of his head. "Yup! I've learned lots from my Grandpa! He was a trainer back in his day, and he traveled around the Kanto Region a bunch. He's been trying his best to teach me all he knows, so I can pass my exams to get into Trainer's School!" He grins, getting into the details of his goals with enthusiasm.

"That's good, Joey. I could help you out with the Entrance Exam if you need it. I've done it before, after all." I tell him, before I hand him back the Mareep Nesia saved. "Here. Ness got this little guy out of harm's way before I did what I did, so it shouldn't be too hurt." I tell him, Joey checking the small Sheep Pokemon over for any injuries. Once he notices the cut on its cheek, he gasps in shock. "You got hurt, Cleo! Hold on, I'll find a Potion to heal you!" He fumbles with his pockets with one hand and holds Cleo in the other, trying to find himself a Potion to use. However, he didn't take into account the size of the Mareep, so it ends up tipping too far to one side and falling out of his hand. He doesn't notice the balance issue until the sheep begins to fall with a startled bleat, but a quick eye and an outstretched hand from me saves the already scared Pokemon from any further harm. "Whew, that was close. You okay there?" I ask Cleo, who's still shaking in fear from the fall, but is more or less okay. Lily seems to be a bit hesitant to talk to the Mareep as well, hiding behind me as she eyes the strangers nervously.

"Yeah. Thanks for the help, Mister." It replies, a little less scared of me now. Its wool is pretty soft, and carries small hints of electric charge. It's got somewhat of a Southern accent, its words carrying that faint Southern drawl. "Heh, no problem little guy." I reply with a smile, before the Mareep corrects me. "Actually Mister, Ah'm a gal." She tells me, causing my grin to turn sheepish. "To be fair, I was a bit busy saving you to listen to your voice." I scratch the back of my head with a hand, chuckling in embarrassment as the Mareep begins to sport a small smile. Meanwhile, Joey looks over Cleo again, a look of guilt etched across his face. "I'm so, so sorry about that, Cleo. Are you okay?" He apologizes to her, checking her body again to see if his unintentional blunder had caused her some more pain. However, Cleo gives a small, happy bleat and nuzzles her cheek into his hand. "You do? Thank you, Cleo!" Joey smiles again, hugging the Sheep Pokemon with both arms this time. Cleo seems to be quite happy herself, enjoying the happy expression on the boy's face. Why can't all Pokemon and human relationships be like this, damn it?

"Hey, Joey. Did you find a Potion for Cleo yet?" I ask, the boy grinning sheepishly as he rubs the back of his head with his free hand. "Ehehehe…" He chuckles, getting me to shake my head with a grin as I sling my backpack off my shoulders and rummage through it. Meanwhile, the Grass Types have taken to commandeering my head as their new resting place, sitting atop my hair and allowing my arms to work undisturbed. "I'll take that as a no. Wait up, I have some of my own." I tell him, pulling out a purple bottle of the medicine. "Put Cleo down for me, will ya?" I ask him, Joey doing as told. As soon as Cleo is on ground level, I approach her with the Potion and hold it up to her cheek, setting the nozzle to squirt instead of spread. "Mister? Ah don't wanna get sprayed. It hurts real bad…" Cleo whimpers, her voice laced with fear as she eyes the bottle. I notice her shaking as the bottle nears her cheek, so I gently pat her head to calm her down. "Woah there. I'm not gonna hurt you, so relax and let me help you get better, okay?" I reassure her, slowly allowing her to get used to the feeling of my hand on her head. She's still tense, but eventually melts into my touch with a smile.

Now that she's relaxed, I move on to healing her wound. "Close your eyes, Cleo. This'll sting a bit, and I'd hate to get this into your eye." I tell her. "Okay." Cleo nods, closing her eyes and allowing me to cup her cheek as I apply the liquid to her cut. She feels the sting as the stuff hits her wound, and shuts her eyes tight during the pain. She remains still as I work, and I'm quickly done healing her cut. "There we go, miss. All better now. It still might sting for a bit as the cells knit themselves back together, but you should be fine." I tell her, the Mareep nodding gratefully with a smile. "Woah, how'd you do that!? Cleo never holds still when I heal her, and she's never even met you!" Joey gawks, surprised that I had handled that situation so well. Getting up from my crouching position, I grin at the boy. "You have much to learn, young Padawan." I tell him, making a rather poor impression of a Jedi. This gets Joey to roll his eyes at the reference, but his smile tells me that he's pretty amused regardless. However, I'm quickly alerted to another, more dangerous threat than the two Team Plasma grunts in the area due to Chell tugging on my pant leg.

As I look her way, she simply points a paw digit to the trees, allowing me to see the literal hundreds of staring eyes and hissing sounds coming right from the trees around us. Nesia has tensed up in my grasp, while Lily is shaking in fear as Dani tries her best to stay tough. Crap, the bugs are closing in. We'd better get a move on, or we're as good as bug food out here. "Come on, Joey. We oughta get going. If we stay, the Bug Types will most likely outnumber and overpower us." I remind him of the sudden urgent need to leave the woods, to which he quickly notices and agrees. "Yeah, let's get outta here! I don't really like bugs at all." He shudders a little at the thought of getting ambushed by the creepy crawlies, while Katrina uses her tail to point to the path we just came from. "I can smell the scent of other Mareep from that direction. I suggest we make haste to the edge of the forest as quickly as we can, Jay." She tells me, her face getting serious as I nod in agreement. "Yeah, I hear ya. Come on, everyone. We need to go, now." I speak up, quickly allowing the Liepard to lead the way as we prepare to hastily make ourselves scarce in the hostile environment.

As I turn to leave, I quickly realize something. "Wait up for a sec, Kat! I need to get something." I tell her, the team plus Joey looking at me in confusion as I run back to the spot where the grunts were lying. "What are you doing, Jay!? The bugs are back there!" Alita yells, her warning going unheard as I run off. "Wait a sec. We need to get those two to the authorities, so we can maybe get a better idea of…" I start, before I see that the two Team Plasma members have already up and vanished. "What the hell?" I ask, as the rest of the team arrives back at the same spot with me. However, they quickly realize that the two grunts as well as the bugs have already vacated the scene, and as such we are left with nothing but confusion as to where those two could have gone off to. "Uh, guys? They were right here, right?" Alita asks, getting Chell to narrow her eyes as she scans the area, hoping to find any traces of them left behind. "I can't pick up their scent, either. Whoever escorted them away did it quite tactfully." Katrina comments, which gets Nesia to nod in agreement. "Where could they have gone?" Dani mutters from my shoulder, barely loud enough for me to hear as I look around the now mostly deserted area. "I dunno. But I've gotta feeling that whoever's behind all this Team Plasma stuff doesn't want us exposing them so soon." I reply, as I feel Lily touching my cheek with her leaves. "There's something on the ground over there, Sir." Lily tells me, pointing to the ground where a small rectangle is visible. Upon closer inspection, I can see that it's a business card. Intrigued by the sudden appearance of the card, I pick it up to take a closer look.

"The Deep Forest Underground Battling Club. For those who would like to place bets on fighting Pokemon for large lump sums of cash. Open 24/7, and the password for entry is 'Thunderdome'." I read the text of the card, Lily and Dani taking a peek at the card themselves. There's a map of coordinates on how to get there, readable by any standard Pokedex. "What does that mean?" Dani asks me, while I flip the card over to see the directions to get there. "I think we've stumbled onto something secret and against the rules of humans here." I whisper, slipping the card into my pocket for later. From what I know, Pokemon are protected from being used as gladiators, but there are those who couldn't care less about the law, opting to use Pokemon to further their means of getting rich. Sick bastards, all of them. "We should check this place out later." Standing up, I motion for the team and Joey. "Come on, guys. There's nothing here, so let's get going. Joey's Grandpa should be worried sick by now, and we shouldn't worry someone of such old age." I suggest. "Oh, yeah! How could I have forgotten Gramps! He's gonna be so mad!" Joey gasps, rushing off along the path out of the woods, with the rest of us in tow.

Once we're out of the woods, Joey brings up another little thing that he had not noticed previously. Well, it's not exactly little, per se. "Woah! Your Pokemon evolved!" He suddenly speaks up as we walk our way back to his Grandpa's farm. In response to his comment, I sweat drop. "Wait. So you only see this now?" I mutter under my breath, unbelieving of his inability to have seen this obvious change in my team's appearance. I honestly thought he would have noticed this stuff sooner. He doesn't catch what I was saying, so he continues to stare at my Pokemon in amazement, looking the three Pokemon over. "Woah! So this is what a Liepard looks like up close! Its tail looks so cool! See, Purrloin? This is what you'll evolve into!" He marvels over the sight of the sleek feline, Katrina soaking up all the praise coming her way with a smile and a few happy swishes of her tail. Her expression isn't much to go by when it comes to her feelings but her tail usually betrays the monotonous appearance her face provides. Joey's Purrloin, on the other hand, seems almost jealous of her. Seems like a cat fight just might go down, eh?

"Woah, that's a Dewott! I hear from Gramps that Samurott are really cool with their armor and all, but I think your Dewott looks super cool!" Joey, like any other energetic little kid, doesn't stay distracted by the cool looking new form of Katrina, as he quickly moves on to inspect Chell. The Dewott, who had been keeping to herself around the kid for the time being, is immediately shocked by the sudden appearance of this little human suddenly looking her over, not even hesitating to poke her scalchops, even going so far as to pull on her whiskers once or twice. The scalchop poking she didn't really mind as much, but when it came to tugging on her whiskers, she immediately went full on defensive, glaring daggers at the ignorant boy who simply didn't know any better. Dewott, as calm and collected as they are most of the time, absolutely hate the idea of having their whiskers touched, much less pulled. The whiskers of a Dewott are part of its pride and authority, so they hold this part of themselves in the highest regard. Anyone who dares to even come close to touching the whiskers of a Dewott usually will not live to regret that poor life choice, as they will immediately get hacked up into little bite sized pieces. So, in order to stop the needless bloodshed, I quickly intervene before Chell decides to make mincemeat out of him.

"Woah there, Joey. Don't touch her whiskers, okay? She really doesn't like it when you do that." I tap the excited little boy on the shoulder in order to get his attention, pulling him away from the Dewott in a gentle fashion. "Oh. Sorry about that. I had no idea." Joey apologizes, Chell relaxing a bit once I get the kid to stop touching her whiskers. She doesn't say so out loud, but I can tell by the look she has towards me that she's pretty thankful for my intervention. Alita flies up to stay out of reach of the little kid, not letting him touch her at all. "Come on! Let me look at you!" He yells up at her, trying to get her to come down. "Like hell I will! Stay away from me, you little creep!" She shoots back at him, although he can't hear what she's saying without a translator. "Someone is rather unacquainted with the idea of personal space." Katrina smiles in amusement as she slinks over to me, Dani snickering at the scene of Joey trying to touch the Tranquill.

"Man, she's in trouble." She grins as Alita tries to fend off the offending kid without much success. Meanwhile, I see Katrina hiding her tail behind her rear again, which only means one thing… "Kat, you took something from the kid, didn't you?" I sigh, making Katrina tense up, before sighing as she knows she's been caught. "Give it here." I scold her, which makes her huff before she reluctantly hands me the kid's Pokeball. "You're not fun whatsoever, you know." She huffs, making me smirk at her. "I beg to differ. I'm all fur the idea." I joke which gets her to giggle. "Ah'm terribly sorry about this, Mister. Joey is still kinda a kid. He never really thinks about what he does before he does it." Cleo sighs apologetically, causing me to shake my head. "Nah, its fine. I was kinda like that when I was his age. I get it." I reassure her, before the sounds of hissing and the scuttling of bug limbs on wood grab my attention.

"Oh no, Gramps!" Joey shouts, rushing over with his Purrloin to help his Grandpa fend off the swarm of Venipede attacking the barn and the Mareep. "Oh my…" Katrina stares at the scene in utter disbelief, Chell following suit. "How did this happen?" Lily whispers, scared for her life upon noticing the multitude of bugs crawling all over the place. "What the fuck is happening!?" Alita yells in shock, witnessing the scene. The barn was completely fine when I last saw it, but now it's been invaded upon by multiple Venipede, and they do not look happy. "Come on, team! We've gotta help 'em!" I shout, getting the team to run after me towards the barn. First Pokemon theft, and now this!? I have no idea what the hell is happening…


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

[Jay]

"Stay back!" I immediately hear the voice of the old farmer to my right, as I see him surrounded by a small group of the poisonous Venipede. He's trying to use his pitchfork to hold them off, but it doesn't seem to be working. They're slowly gaining ground on him, as they already have him surrounded on all sides. "Chell! Use Water Pulse to stun them! Nesia, use Vine Whip to sweep them away from him!" I command, Chell quickly lobbing a sphere of water at the Bug Types. The Water Pulse explodes on contact with the feelers of the bug in front, stunning the vast majority of them and rendering them helpless to stop Nesia from using her vines to sweep them back in a horizontal whip. With the bugs out of the way, I quickly run over to the man, who immediately recognizes me from earlier. "It's you!" He realizes, while Chell and Nesia try to hold the attacking Venipede back. "Yeah, it's me. You looked like you could use a hand or two, so I came back over to help out." I tell him, kicking one of the little buggers back as he swipes at a few with his pitchfork. He stops in his motions to point to the barn in front of us, getting me to follow his finger and look at the structure as well.

"I need some help getting to my Mareep. We were separated when the Venipede attacked us out of nowhere, and I told them to flee into the barn." He explains, his brow creasing in concern at the sight of the insects swarming the place. Well, I can see how that turned out. The old man breaks into a sprint, running towards the barn in order to try and help out his Mareep. I quickly follow behind, making sure that all of the team is present and accounted for before we leave. "Chell, is everyone okay?" I ask, the Dewott scanning the ranch turned battlefield and nodding. "Good. Now, get the team together and get to the barn! We need to help the old man save his Mareep!" I tell her, getting her to nod and head on further down the field, while I run uphill in order to catch up to the guy. Geez, for someone of his age, he sure can run fast! His hair's already starting to become grey, for God's sake! "Hey, you idiot! Wait for us!" I hear behind me, seeing Chell running up to me with the rest of the team in tow. Alita in particular, seems to be a mite angry with me for splitting up with them like that.

"Well, I was going to help out the old man with his infestation problem at the barn…" I point out, making Katrina grin in amusement. "And what would you have done without our help?" She asks me, making me stop in my tracks. "…Oh, right. Whoops." I mutter, embarrassed at my own stupidity as Katrina giggles, Dani snickering a bit herself. Nesia simply shakes her head, while Chell sneaks in a smirk of amusement. "Don't worry, Sir. We can help now." Lily offers, making me nod in thanks as I address her. "Thanks, Lily." However, Nesia has already slithered ahead of me, pointing to the barn. "Then let's go. He's already inside the barn." She points out, reminding me of the situation as we catch up to her. "Right. You heard her, team. We should go." I tell them, breaking off into a sprint for the barn, the team not far behind.

As soon as we reach the red structure, I push open the door to find that the Mareep have been cornered by the vicious Venipede, the bugs hissing menacingly and slowly advancing on the frightened Sheep Pokemon. Meanwhile, I see the old farmer trying his best to fend off the multitude of bugs coming at him from all sides. Noticing me, the farmer quickly gets an idea, pointing to the Mareep with the utmost urgency. "Quickly! I need you to get their attention!" He shouts, getting me to nod in reply as I get to work telling the team what to do. "Nesia, use Vine Whip to get those Venipede away from the swarm! Chell, use Razor Shell to get in close and smack them back! Ali, use Gust to disorient them! Kat, use Scratch to get rid of any stragglers! Lily, Dani, stick with me!" I tell them, Lily and Dani quickly hopping off Katrina's back and seeking shelter in the confines of my hoodie. From there, I simply watch as the team gets to work, kicking Venipede tail like a well-oiled machine.

Nesia quickly uses her vines to smack a bunch of the opposing bugs into Chell, who proceeds to slice into them with her scalchops. Her blades a blur of slashes and swipes, she sends them flying with no shortage of cuts and gashes across their carapaces. Meanwhile, Alita's kicking up a wind that's largely successful in slowing the offending insects down, stopping them from using the walls and their many legs to their advantage. Katrina dashes around the area, using her sharp claws to cut down any Venipede who were lucky enough to avoid the strong wind and the swipe and cut tactics of the team. As soon as they clear out enough of the bugs, I quickly holler to get the attention of the Mareep. "Come on, you guys! The old man needs all of you, now more than ever to pull through for him! You have to!" I tell them, getting them to finally listen and break them out of their frightened state.

As they run to the old farmer, they bleat to show their attention, to which the old man smiles in gratitude towards the adorable Pokemon. "Thank you, my friends. Now…" He starts, his smile turning into a smirk as he faces down the Venipede. "Let's clean up this mess! Start with Thunder Wave!" He commands his flock, the Mareep huddling together to charge up before quickly letting loose a paralyzing blast of electricity. Apparently the Electric Types have decent control over their attacks, as the electricity swerves around us, leaving me as well as the team unaffected by the attack. The Venipede aren't as lucky, and are hit with the full force of the attack. The blast of electricity courses through them, leaving behind the lingering effects of paralysis. They hiss in anger, but cannot move in to retaliate.

"Now, use Cotton Spore and aim for their heads!" The old man keeps up the attacks, his Mareep launching balls of cotton from their wooly coats that latch onto the Venipede. Since the balls of cotton were aimed for their heads, the bugs are blinded and slowed by the sticky, fluff stuff and are rendered helplessly stuck to the floor. Some try to wriggle out of the soft, sticky prison, but the combination of paralysis and adhesive cotton proves to be more than enough to render their resistance futile. He may not look like much at first, but god damn, this old guy knows his strategies. Guess Joey's parents didn't send him to learn from his gramps for nothing. As they struggle helplessly, the old man and I heave a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over. That was some nice work." I thank the farmer, before I hear a scream. Strange, that voice sounds a lot like…

"Joey!" The old man cries, looking at the boy and Cleo cornered by a few stray Venipede. The bugs are closing in on the two, and Cleo appears to be badly poisoned from her encounter with them. She's already breathing pretty hard, and is struggling to stay conscious as it is. Still, she's not giving up, trying to charge up any kind of electric attack. However, the singular streak of thunder she fires ends up dispersing harmlessly into the air before it even gets too far. The Venipede stare incredulously for a second, before making a sound similar to snickering as they close in for the kill. Damn it, how could we have not seen this happening? There's no time to call for help, as the rest of the team is too far away to reach them in time. The old man and his flock of Mareep are too far away for them to make a move and save the kid.

The Venipede are getting ready to launch a Poison Sting at Cleo and Joey, in order to make the struggle easier on them. "Come on, Joey! Get outta there!" I cry out to him, trying desperately to get his attention, but to no avail. Joey is frozen in fear, unable to do anything to help the situation. Cleo could do something, but she's far too weak to do any damage. Damn it, I guess this only leaves me. Running up to the pair, I quickly grab them and move them out of harm's way. As I make my daring move, the Venipede fire their volley of poison needles, some of the small poisonous spikes digging into the skin of my leg and drawing blood. "Gah!" I grunt, feeling the pain spiking through my leg. Running off to the side, I clear enough distance between us and them in order for the Mareep flock to finish those stray Venipede off with a Thunder Shock. As the defeated bugs slump to the floor, I follow suit and land on one knee, feeling the sting of the needles buried in my leg.

"Jay! Are you okay!?" I hear Chell's concerned voice from across the barn, seeing the Dewott run over to me with a look of urgency. "Yeah, I'm fine kiddo. Just a scratch, that's all." I tell her, before Alita sends a glare my way. "You couldn't keep yourself safe for more than ten seconds!? You stupid idiot!" She yells, smacking my face with her wing. "Okay, geez! I'm fine, I told you. If I had been poisoned, it would have set in by now." I reply, Lily looking at me with genuine worry. "Are you sure you're okay, Sir?" She asks, getting me to nod. "Yup. I'm not poisoned at all. There's no need to worry, Lily." I reassure her, Katrina and Nesia breathing a sigh of relief when they see that what I say is true.

Joey, now snapped out of his frightened petrified state, looks to me with a face of worry and guilt. "Jay! Oh god, they got you!" He gasps upon seeing my wound, before he slumps to the ground, tears threatening to leak from his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Jay. I couldn't do anything to help. You helped, Gramps helped, even Cleo tried to save me. I just stood there like an idiot." He chokes, berating himself for his own inability to assist the situation. Cleo looks to be quite sad as well, for her own weakness and seeing Joey sad. Pulling the toxic needles out of my leg, I pat Joey on the shoulder gently to get his attention. "Hey, it's not your fault. You're still learning, remember? Part of being a Pokemon Trainer is learning what you're not so good at, and getting over it." I tell him, making him look at me with a teary gaze. "But I…"He sobs, before I shake my head. "It's okay to not be perfect. That's what makes us human, after all. However, you can still work hard to get rid of those weaknesses." I comfort him, which slowly causes his sobs to disappear.

"Joey! Are you okay!?" The farmer finally makes it over to us, quickly scooping Joey up into a big hug. Joey nods, hugging hid Grandpa back. "Yeah. I'm sorry, gramps." He replies, his grandpa smiling at him. "It's okay, Joey. You tried to help, and that's enough." He tells his grandson, who quickly stands up to look at him. "I promise you, Grandpa! I'll work hard, and I'll be the best Trainer ever!" He yells, giving his grandpa the widest smile I've seen him give yet. "That's my boy. Now, let me tend to the Mareep. Some of them have been badly poisoned from the encounter with those Venipede back there." He chuckles, while the touching scene reminds me of a similar promise that I made. Joey wipes his eyes and smiles widely, before turning to me. "Thanks for the save, Jay." He thanks me, getting me to smile. "Heh, no problem. Now, how about we do something about Cleo's condition, eh?" I remind him, pointing to the poisoned Mareep next to the kid. "Oh, right! I'm so sorry I forgot about you, Cleo." He yelps, before searching in his pockets for something. After he's done, he looks at me in a sheepish manner. "Um, could you lend me an Antidote?" He grins nervously, getting me to shake my head in exasperation. 

"I know, I know. Don't worry, I've got something for that." I reassure him, reaching into my bag and pulling out a Pecha Berry. "Katrina and Lily found this for me, just in case. But, Cleo needs it more than I do right now, so she can have it." I tell him handing him the berry. He looks at it, and then back to me with a look of uncertainty. "Are you sure? You don't have to, ya know. I'm sure Gramps has Antidotes of his own." He says, trying to give me back the berry, before I shake my head. "It's fine. Besides, being poisoned isn't all that great. Believe me, I know exactly how that feels." I tell him, getting him to nod and feed the berry to Cleo. She quickly bites into it and gulps it down, the effects of the small fruit already getting rid of the effects of the poison.

As she heals up, I see Joey sparing his grandpa some glances, while still looking at Cleo resting up at the same time. So, he does want to help out more. Putting a hand to his shoulder, I point to his grandpa working on healing up the Mareep. "Hey, Joey. You can help the old man out, if ya want to. I'll look after Cleo here." I tell him, getting him to nod as he rushes off to help out his old man with detoxifying the Mareep. As I sit back down and look at my leg, I feel the blood trickling down my thigh and onto the grass. "Yeesh, that wound is deep. For a few small buggers, they sure can strike hard." I sigh, seeing Chell look at my wound with guilt once more. "Geez, kiddo. I told you, it's okay. Everyone gets hurt every now and then, so don't be sad if you couldn't have done much about it." I reassure her, causing her to shake her head. "But I could've done something. I was too busy fighting those Venipede to help you. I could've stopped this…" She says in a sad tone, before I pat her head to shush her. All the others seem to be a mite sad that they couldn't stop the wound from happening either, Chell's words only making them sadder.

"It's alright. I told you to fight in the first place, right? It's not your fault." I tell her, cupping her cheek with my hand. "So don't be sad, 'kay? You're not yourself when you're sad. None of you are." I grin, making her smile again as she hugs me. "Thanks, Mister Jay." She says, nuzzling her head into my chest. The rest of the team perks up when they hear me say that, smiles reappearing on their faces. "The rest of you don't have to just sit there, ya know. You can join in on the hug." I tell them, getting Nesia to quickly slither over and embrace my arm with her hands. In response, I pat her head gently, sharing with her some of my inner warmth. Katrina simply smiles as her tail begins to swish from side to side in a happier way, and Lily begins to smile again as my words seem to have had a positive effect on her emotionally. Dani smiles as well, seeing her friend regain her positivity. Alita simply looks away, seemingly not interested in the verbal exchange, but the small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth tell me otherwise.

As I hug it out with Chell, she quickly releases me, setting for a spot in my lap for now. Nesia sits on my shoulder, happily snuggling up to my cheek and neck with her serpentine form. She feels a bit like a cold touch from a person, but I soon get used to her slightly colder temperature. "Whew, that darn headache's finally gone…" I hear Cleo say as she gets up, looking at the sitting position I'm in. "Oh, hey. Joey's gone off to help out with the curing of poisoned Mareep, in case you're looking for him. I vouched to stick around and look after ya while you healed." I tell her, Cleo nods before sitting back down onto the grass and staring at the energetic kid from afar. Joey's running around all over the place, trying his best to avoid any contact with the Venipede while at the same time healing any Mareep in the area.

"Ah wonder why those blasted bugs were so inclined to attack us outta the blue like that." Cleo speaks up, a look of mild confusion on her face. Nodding, I second her thought. "I hear ya. I wonder why they'd simply start charging out of the forest to attack us. Bug Types generally hate leaving the forest for anything, and they still stay back from human settlements for various reasons." The main reason though, is that bugs know that humans love to avenge fallen brethren by destroying everything they know and love. Well, destroying is a strong word. Try complete atomization of all they know and love. No wonder some Pokemon are rare enough in the wild as it is.

"Well then, why don't we do some poking around? We could try and find the cause of this by looking around a bit." I suggest, standing up and getting Cleo's attention. "Ah mean sure, but where do we start?" She asks me, to which I point to the barn. "Let's start with the most obvious place first, shall we?" "Sounds like a good idea to me." Chell nods in agreement, letting me trudge ahead as she follows behind. "Well, I don't have much to do anyways. Why not?" Alita shrugs, despite lacking the anatomy to do so, as she takes off and hovers close to my side. "Agreed. A little mystery solving would be rather enjoyable." Katrina voices her thoughts on the matter, slinking over to us as Dani and Lily hop onto her back, following without complaint. Cleo looks at me in surprise for a split second, before following us towards the barn as well. "Let's git to the bottom a' this mess."

Upon entering the barn, I can see that the confines of the place are relatively empty, with not much stacked around inside. Sure, there are the hay bales, but that doesn't seem to help much in the ways of explaining why bugs attacked this place. There is light inside the place, provided by the electric light bulbs hanging on the ceiling above us. "Man, this place is huge! Where the hell do we start!?" Alita gawks at the spacious insides of the place, looking at all the various tools and items stacked around. "This seems to be problematic indeed." Katrina sighs, looking around the area and trying to find anything of use. "Well, the best plan right now is to look around. Come on, everyone. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that isn't a tool or hay." I speak up, everyone nodding as they split up to scour the barn for anything out of the ordinary. Dani, however, seems to be suddenly fixated on the pile of hay bales near the back wall of the barn. "Hey, Lily. I wonder if those hay bales are any fun to jump on." She wonders, pointing to the hay bales she has her eyes on. Lily looks at said hay bales, and the back to the Cottonee in confusion. "Why would you wonder that?" She asks, getting me to listen in to their conversation as I rummage through some loose hay.

"Well, I'm bored! I wanna do something fun! It's been ages since I could do anything that wasn't fighting for those asshats!" She fumes, getting Lily to sigh as she remembers the dregs of her past. Dani doesn't stay mad for long, as she quickly flies over to test out her theory. "Wait up, Dani!" Lily yelps, seeing her friend suddenly take off at a brisk pace compelling her to give chase. Before Dani can get too far, I speak up. "Don't jump on the stack of grass." I warn them, Dani quickly floating back over to her friend and whispering to her. "Yeah, we're totally gonna jump on the stack of grass." Upon reaching the stack of hay bales, Dani proceeds to use her weightlessness to propel herself up onto the top of the dauntingly high stack of dried grass. She gives the pile an experimental poke, before she promptly nods to herself and flattens out the cotton on her body, quickly losing her weightlessness due to the lack of fluffy material surrounding her. She then begins to bounce atop it, scaring the crap out of her Petilil friend.

"Dani! Stop it, please! That doesn't look so safe!" Lily tries to raise her voice to warn her exuberant partner, but all she accomplishes with the extra speaking effort is a voice similar to how a normal person would talk. "You'd best listen to your friend here, Dani. That there hay ain't safe to jump on!" Cleo adds, seeing the potential danger behind the actions of the Cottonee as well. This only gets an eye roll from Dani, who continues to bounce on the hay without a care in the world. "Oh come on, Lily! Stop being a stick in the mud and get up here! It's really fun, you know!" She yells, getting the attention of Katrina. The feline immediately notices the dangers of Dani doing so, and warns me about it by tapping my back with the point of her tail. "I do not believe that is safe…" She warns the small ball of cotton that's having her fun, looking quite worried for the safety of the Cottonee. "Nah, Kat! You worry too much! Join me up here, it's- Wah!" Dani begins to protest, but she's quickly interrupted by the sudden wobble of the large stack of hay bales underneath her. It seems to stop wobbling as suddenly as it started, but it soon begins to topple over, taking the hapless Cottonee with it.

Shit! If I wanna salvage this, I've gotta act fast! "Nesia, use Vine Whip to grab the hay stacks! Chell, use Water Pulse to knock them out of the air! Ali, use Gust and blow them away! Kat, get Lily outta there!" I quickly order the team, the girls quickly getting to work. Chell lobs a Water Pulse at the ones that seemed to be falling towards Katrina, who succeeds in getting the Petilil out of harm's way. Meanwhile, the Gust from Alita concentrates the hay bales to a less scattered area, allowing for Nesia to quite literally wrap it up with a Vine Whip. Meanwhile, I take it upon myself to catch the falling Cottonee in my grasp, who hadn't had the time to puff herself up again to avoid the dreadful powers of gravity. I also manage to save Cleo as well, as she wasn't too far from where I caught Dani.

As soon as the team successfully deals with the falling hay, I take a look at the two fluffy Pokemon in my grasp. "Whew, that was close. You two alright?" I ask them, Dani seeming a little stunned at the moment. "Sure am now. Thanks for the save there, Mister." Cleo replies, nodding her head in appreciation as I set the two of them down onto the ground. Dani, now fully recovered from the shock of falling down from such a height, puffs her cotton back up again. "Yeah. Thanks for the help, Jay." She speaks up, now floating back into the air again. "Good to hear, girls. Now, make sure that you don't cause any more falling hay, okay? I don't wanna get buried alive today, and I trust that you don't want to, either." I grin at them, making Dani look away in embarrassment as Lily and Cleo chuckle. "Dani looks so cute when she's blushing…" Lily giggles, while Cleo snickers along with Alita. "Yeah, Ah can agree with ya there, Lily." She nods, getting me to chuckle as well. "Yup." I simply agree with the two, finding that normally confident and independent Cottonee blushing to be quite the adorable sight. "Shut up. Not cute." Dani mutters, finding our teasing to be quite unbearable. Chell simply smiles with Katrina in the background, enjoying the hilary of the situation.

"Okay. Now we've gotta cotton-ue what we were doing, and that is to find something strange." I joke, making Alita groan as Chell's giggle turns into laughter. "God damn it, you idiot! That wasn't funny!" Alita smacks me over the head with her wing, making me wince as Dani snickers. "Yeah, no. That was hilarious." She comments, Cleo laughing too. "Geez, that was terrible!" She snorts, while Nesia gives me an eye roll, evidencing her lack of amusement towards my joke. Her smile, however, suggests otherwise.

As I grin, I suddenly see a red light flashing from inside the fallen hay stack. "What the heck?" I mutter, walking over and pushing back the hay bales surrounding the blinking light. I then manage to pick up the offending item: a small device, no larger than a button on a coat. As I pick it up, I see that the Venipede tied up inside the barn close to me begin to wriggle more erratically, as if angered by the light. "Girls? I think I've found why those bugs were so pissed. Check this thing out." I tell them, holding it up to one of the bugs to test if my suspicions were correct. As the bug lets out an angered hiss, I nod in confirmation. "This thing, whatever it is, is making the Venipede go haywire." I speak up, Nesia and Chell eyeing the item with narrowed eyes. "Now, who the heck would leave something like this on our farm?" Cleo asks, confused as to why this object was here to begin with. "Beats me." I reply, flipping the thing over to see tow logos on the back. A letter P in blue, and the letter R in magenta. Wait a sec… That R…!

"P and R? What's that?" Alita asks, confused as to what the letters were hinting towards. "Well, the P should stand for those Team Plasma bastards, but the R…" I trail off, remembering some dregs of my own past due to that familiar letter. "The R stands for what?" Dani asks, not seeing my pained expression. Chell, Katrina and Nesia however, do see my sudden shift in mood. "Jay does not seem to want to discuss the matter as of now." Katrina speaks up, Nesia nodding in agreement. "Yeah. Mister Jay doesn't look too happy to see that R, so maybe we should ask him later." Chell suggests, letting the topic go for now.

As we stand there, I see Joey running up to us. Quickly pocketing the device, I wave to the kid. "Heya, Joey. What's up?" I ask, to which he smiles wide. "Well, it's late, so my gramps wanted to treat you guys to dinner! How's that sound?" He tells us, his eyes brimming with excitement. Raising an eyebrow, I look to the girls for their opinions. Seeing no objections, I nod at the eager beaver. "Sounds good, kid. We'll stay for dinner, so long as we aren't too much of a bother." I agree with his plans, making him whoop as he leaps a few feet in the air. "Yes! Hey, Gramps! He said yes!"


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

[Jay]

Dinner's really comforting and homely this time, with the food being really good as well. It might be because I'm eating home-cooked food in a house on a ranch, but I digress. Joey's grandfather was even nice enough to let me stay and sleep for the night, so that's good. My team and I have already cleared up most of the goodies on the table, with Chell and Dani being at the forefront of all the food consumption. Dani is simply floating above the food and picking up whatever her leaves and mouth can reach, while Chell is quickly and politely shoving food down her gullet at a frightening pace. However, Alita and Katrina seem to be catching up, the Liepard using her slender tail to swipe food off of their respective plates and into her maw, while Alita pecks rapidly at her plate like a machine gun would fire bullets. I swear, if she pecks any harder, the plate's gonna crack down the middle!

While Lily, Nesia and I eat calmly and slowly, Joey and his Grandpa simply observe the scene of food murder before them, Joey watching with more awe than his Grandpa. "Do they always eat that quickly?" He whispers to me, having had to scoot closer to my chair and poke me in the side to grab my attention. "No, they don't. They're only like that when there's good food in the house." I reply, Joey's Grandpa smiling as he hears the compliment. "Why thank you, Jay. I'm glad to see that your team appreciates my cooking." He nods in my direction, to which I nod back in acknowledgement. He's been calm so far, observing my team eating up with an odd sense of déjà vu. It's almost like he's been in my shoes before… Oh wait, didn't he say he was a Trainer back in his day? That explains it.

Joey had explained to his old man about the device we had accidentally found, and needless to say he was suspecting that something big was going on. I don't blame him. Some guys simply take his Pokemon, and a device causing them to go rampant is dropped on his land on the same day? Not a coincidence by any means, I'm pretty sure. After that, there was the problem of cleaning up the mess caused by the swarm of Venipede on the property. It was looking to be quite the problem, but I had the team help me out. The Venipede were sufficiently gummed up and worn out due to dealing with the sticky wool, which made handling them all the more easy. However, we had to wear gloves to pick them up, as not to accidentally touch any of them and activate their Poison Point ability accidentally. Once we did that, we let them stay inside the TBA that Joey's Grandpa had on him at the moment. He still hasn't taken it off for dinner, which is weird to me in a personal sense. (What a TBA is, I'll get into in a moment.)

Well, the release wasn't initially what Joey had planned for them. He had suggested we call pest control in order to deal with them without much fuss from our end of things. "I still don't get why you didn't just call them up to get rid of those stupid bugs for us." Joey pouts as I fork some roasted potato into my mouth. As you can see, he still hasn't gotten over how I had made him do all that extra work in helping the very same buggers that had attacked him and his grandpa in the first place. At the time, I had told him that the fates of those bugs would have been much worse if we had called the exterminators in to give him a valid reason, but I don't think he really got the point. His grandpa was much more understanding, immediately supporting my choice to free the Venipede ourselves.

"Ya see Joey, I don't think you get what Pest Control does to any bugs they find." I reply, reaching for some more potatoes before the team takes them. However, I am disappointed to find that my stab simply hits the plate, indicating a loss of potato goodness to chew on. Looking around, I see that the team still has some amount of potatoes left, and that they're in the middle of eating up. Sighing, I place my fork down on the table. Well, it's not that important. I'm not that hungry, anyhow. "What do you mean?"He asks, genuinely confused as to what I was implying. It's not his fault. I used to believe that humans treated Pokemon better as a kid, after all.

His grandpa simply looks his way with a solemn expression as he explains to the kid about how the world really works. "Joey, those exterminators wouldn't have taken the Pokemon back to the forest." He begins, to which Joey raises an eyebrow. "Wait, what are you talking about? Aren't they supposed to look after Pokemon, like my mom said?" He picks at his food, now really surprised at what we were saying. "Well, the exterminators do exactly what their name implies. They exterminate, or kill, any Bug Type Pokemon they find harassing humans, no matter what the reason." I finish, Joey now quite shocked as he hears me out. "Wait, so they kill any bugs they find!? But these guys weren't even attacking us for real! They were forced to with that thing you found!" He shouts, now a mite ticked off at how humans operate. "Yup. But do you think they care, even a little? Nope. As long as they get rid of the problem, they get paid. So, they just kill them with poison."

Now, Joey is stunned, as well as Lily and Dani. "That's so mean! Those Pokemon don't deserve to die like that!" Lily cries, horrified by my revealing of the situation between humans and Pokemon. "That's so much bull! They can't kill Pokemon for those stupid reasons!" Dani objects, her outburst getting Nesia and Alita to sigh. Chell looks saddened by the facts, but nods in confirmation regardless. Putting a hand on the kid's shoulder, I tell Joey something personal. "Me neither. It's pretty unfair for the Pokemon, to be honest. That's kinda why I'm a Trainer. If I get to a point where I'm a really good Pokemon Trainer, I can affect the way people see Pokemon. This way, people will listen to me due to my strength." I look his way, determination burning in my eyes. "Woah. That's really cool, Jay." Joey replies, in awe when he hears my personal goal. Joey's grandpa is shocked by my statement, but he soon regains himself, smiling widely at my words.

"I see. I was skeptical of your standing in all this, but now I see the truth. If what you say is true, then I wish to aid you in your quest for a better world." He stands up, walking into a room separate to the kitchen. "Wait here, please. There is something I wish to give to you." He tells me, walking inside and reappearing with a gauntlet and a disc. He hands both objects to me, while I give him a look of confusion. Nesia seems to be really curious about this tool, staring at it with stars in her eyes. "I recently got it fixed, but I think you'll find a much better use for it." Hearing his words and taking a look at the screen located on the wrist of the gauntlet, I finally see what this is, and I give him a look of shock. "Whoa! Is this what I think it is?" I ask him, putting on the glove as he nods. "Well, what is it?" Alita asks, to which the old man explains to me. "This is a Trainer's Battle Assistant, which also connects to the Adaptable Virtual Ranch and the Pokemon Storage Unit. This disc allows you to download your own Pokemon Storage Unit on your own laptop, due to lack of space inside the gauntlet."

Smirking as I observe the gauntlet, I can't help but pump a fist in happiness. This just made my life a hell of a lot easier. "Thanks a bunch, sir." I nod in gratitude, making the old man smile in return. "No problem, young one. If you really want to thank me, just make sure you uphold your end of the promise." He tells me, Joey staring at the glove on my arm in envy. "Aw, man! Gramps never let me use one of those!" He pouts, making me grin as I pat his shoulder. "It's fine. It's not about the tools, it's about the Trainer." I tell him, making him perk up a bit. "Okay, Jay! I got it!" He nods, making me and his Grandpa laugh as I ruffle his hair. "Now come, Joey. There's still the dishes that need to be done, and I need some assistance with the washing up." He adds, getting Joey to nod and hop off his chair to follow his Grandpa. "You got it, Gramps!" He replies, picking up as many dishes as he can carry and dashing off into the kitchen to clean up after himself. "Should I help you with the dishware?" I ask Joey's Grandpa, getting up to move some of the dishes into the kitchen as well, before I'm stopped by a shake of the old man's head. "That won't be necessary, Jay. You're our guest, after all. We can handle this on our own, so take some time to figure out how the TBA works." He tells me, heading off into the kitchen to check up on his grandson. As he walks into the room, I hear a clanging of metal impacting marble tiles. "Oops. Sorry about that, gramps…" I hear Joey apologize as I sigh and shake my head.

"What does it do, Master?" Nesia asks me, her eyes showing her desperate need to figure out the inner workings of this strange glove. Seeing her curiosity, I turn on the device and show her, as well as the rest of the team, the workings of this gauntlet. "Well this is the TBA, or the Trainer's Battle Assistant. It allows me to freeze a Pokemon and store it inside this gauntlet without hurting it with a method called Cryo-stasis, although it needs to be weak in order for the Cryo-stasis to work. It also allows me to summon any of your Pokeballs, or any of you if I want to, directly from inside this gauntlet."

Dani looks more that a bit confused at the mention of them being inside the glove. "Wait, what do you mean by us being inside this thing?" She asks, eyeing the glove with a look of suspicion. Chell seems a little scared when I mention the idea of sending her inside the AVR, tensing up when I explain how the gauntlet works. "I'm getting to that." I reply, a little irritated by her interruption. "Well, this glove also has access to a space I can place you all in, which is called an Adaptable Virtual Ranch, or an AVR. It's a place where I can load in bits and pieces of an environment for all of you to enjoy." Looking towards Chell I pat her head. "And don't worry, Chell. It's not like a Pokeball at all. In fact, Pokemon have told their Trainers it's like the real outside." I reassure the Dewott, who visibly relaxes with a thankful smile on her face as she nods in gratitude. "For example, if Nesia likes the trees that a forest has, then I can give her a forest inside the AVR." I explain, typing in the necessary commands for a forest area to be set up inside the virtual ranch. As I finish up a forest spawns in for them to see, which catches them off by surprise. "That does appear to be an actual forest." Katrina comments, looking at the forest with curiosity. "Whoa! Does that mean that I could fly around all the time, even though I'm inside that thing?" She asks, to which I nod. "Yup. You can do whatever you want inside this thing, except train your moves to make them stronger. This is because your bodies are turned into digital forms of themselves, so your muscles can't improve over time inside the AVR. You can, however, improve how familiar you are with your attacks." I add, already seeing Nesia's eagerness to see the environment inside for herself.

"As I can see that Ness is already feeling up for a test run, I'll suggest that you girls enter the AVR for a look around." I speak up, pointing to the AVR. "So, you ready to head on inside?" I ask them, to which they all nod, save for Lily. "Is this going to hurt, Sir? I'm a little scared…" She whispers, making me shake my head in response. "Nope, the digitalization process will not hurt a single bit. I just need to hold still for a little bit as the gauntlet converts you into data. Fair warning though, the first time of being digitalized takes some getting used to, and so you may feel dizzy upon entering." I warn them, to which Alita scoffs. "Yeah, yeah. Now hurry the hell up and put us in!" She buts in, making me sigh as I type in the command for digitalization. "Okay, geez. Now hold still, and let the device do its thing." I tell her, scanning them over with the gauntlet and preparing the gauntlet to digitalize the targeted Pokemon. As soon as the device locks on, a wave of energy washes over them and begins to turn them into data. They seem to be a bit shocked at the sudden pixilation of their forms, but they hold still regardless and let the device complete its transformation of their bodies. Well most of them seem shocked. "It tickles, Sir!" Lily giggles, feeling the energy slowly working its way through her body and sending her to the AVR. Alita and Dani are surprised at the sudden transformation, while Nesia and Katrina have the same calm expression worn on their faces. Chell seems to be a mite scared of the process, but a reassuring look from me is all it takes to calm her nerves and gain a smile.

As for me, this is quite the exciting thing to see for myself. I've never seen this kind of technology being used before, so I watch the process with interest, observing the digitalization of my team to its completion. As soon as they're completely transported into the gauntlet, followed by a ding sound from the gauntlet to signal the completion of the digital transfer, I take a look into the AVR app of the gauntlet's screen. Opening up the application, I can already hear the sounds of rustling trees and slithering feet in the background of the forest. The sky of the AVR is already showing a setting sun as well as a couple of orange clouds, indicating the time similarities of the AVR with the real world as well. Man, technology rules. Turning on the intercom that allows us to communicate both ways, I decide to speak to the team that are sitting on the grass, save for Alita, Nesia and Katrina. Katrina should be running off into the forest somewhere with Nesia, while I can already spot Alita flying up high into the sky in the virtual space. They don't seem to be aware that I can talk to them while they're inside the Virtual Ranch, so this may be a little surprising to them.

"Hey girls, everything okay in there? I can't really see Kat, Ness or Ali from here, so I'm not too sure that the place is to your liking." I speak up, startling the heck out of Lily and Chell, who jumps a bit upon hearing the sound of my voice. However, both calm down again once they realize it's still me talking from the other end of the gauntlet, even though my voice is kind of everywhere. "Woah! Where the hell are you talking from!? I can't see you anywhere from in here!" Alita yells, making me chuckle lightly as she voices her confusion. "I agree. Listening to your disembodied voice is a rather strange experience." Katrina adds, having stopped her running in the forest. "Master, where are you talking from?" Nesia asks me, to which I explain. "There's a speaker on the side of this gauntlet of mine, so I can talk to any of you in here whenever I want. I can also hear you when you want to talk to me." I explain, sating Nesia's curiosity for now. "That is really freaking cool." Alita replies, making me grin in response. Humans make some really cool stuff, and this is no exception.

"So, how is it in there anyways? I can't tell from here." I ask them again, having not gotten an answer the first time around. "It's really nice, Sir. I can see trees, clouds in the sky, and there's even a light breeze in here." She tells me, looking around the place to tell me what she sees. "The sky here is great! These clouds feel so real!" Alita shouts, flying through one to prove her point. "Yeah! It's really nice in here! The stuff I can see in here makes it feel like I've never even left the real world!" Dani pitches in, floating up a little higher as to get a better view. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just ride the wind for a bit. Woohoo!" She laughs, the wind sweeping her light, cotton covered body out of the corner of the screen. As she exits my sight, I can see Lily smiling at Chell, who smiles back at her small, cute friend. However, I feel that Chell could use some areas of her own to enjoy her stay a little more in.

"Hey, kid. You feel like swimming in there?" I ask Chell, who perks up a bit at the mention of a place to swim in. Seeing her nod, along with the sudden positive shift in her expression, I smirk. "Alright then. One lake, coming up!" I answer her, typing in the command needed to place a moderately sized body of water near the two sitting Pokemon, as well as a couple of flowers around said lake for decorative purposes. The lake shows off a nice orange color, the light of the sun reflecting onto the water itself. As soon as Chell sees the lake materialize, she quickly jumps in the lake to have a splash, sending a small spout of water upwards with her sudden entry into the otherwise calm body of liquid. She soon surfaces after a little bit of swimming in the deeper area of the lake, a smile now quite obvious to see on her face. "Thanks a lot, Mister Jay." She expresses her gratitude, making me smile as she thanks me. "No prob, kid. Now have some fun, alright?" I chuckle, seeing her head sink back into the water again as soon as I said that. Meanwhile, I see Lily sniffing at the flowers around her, soaking in the warmth and light of the setting sun as she smiles softly, humming a tune to herself. The song that she's humming sounds quite familiar to me, but I can't really place the tune of what she's humming. Her voice is quite nice to listen to, if I do say so myself.

Before I decide to talk to her, I decide to make myself a digital avatar within the virtual space, so that the team has a reference point that they can talk to. Talking to nothingness can be really weird, as I can relate to from personal experience. Being alone for most of my childhood gets really boring sometimes. Punching in the settings I need to make a digital copy of myself, I finally can begin talking to Lily as if I was in there with her. "Heya, Lily. Liking the flowers, I see." I speak up, Lily smiling at my digital avatar when she hears me speak. "I really like these, Sir. Thanks for putting them here for me." She tells me, to which I smile back at her via my avatar. "No prob, Lily. Just tell me if you need anything else to make your stay here better, and I'll make sure you get it. Oh, and nice humming voice by the way. I like the way you sound when you hum." I tell her, seeing a blush form on her face as she hears my compliment. "Um, thank you Sir. No one's ever told me that before…" She shyly replies, making me look at her in disbelief. "Surely you're lying to me, right? That's some of the best humming I've ever heard, and my mom sung me to sleep every night when I was a kid!" I tell her, making her giggle a bit as she hides her face with the leaves on her head. "Sir, please stop. You're embarrassing me…" She timidly tells me, before suddenly remembering something she still had to tell me.

"Oh, that's right!" She suddenly says, making me raise an eyebrow in her direction. "Yeah? What's on your mind, Lily?" I ask, getting her to look my way. "Sir, I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I've decided that I wanna stay with you from now on." She tells me, getting my grin to falter a bit and become unsure of her words. "Are you sure, Lily? 'Cause if you decide to be part of the team, I'm gonna need you to learn how to fight along with the rest of the girls. I can't say it'll be easy, ya know." I warn her, but she shakes her head confidently as she reinstates her decision. "No, I've made my choice. I want to travel with you, and that's that!" She boldly states, before seeming to shrink a bit as she calms down after her little speech. "If you'll let me, that is…" She adds, making me chuckle at her sudden increase in gutsy attitude. "Sure thing, Lily. I'll let you join the team." I tell her, when Dani decides to but in with her own confirmation. "If she's in, them I'm in too! I can be a really good fighter, just you wait and see!" She boasts, floating back down from the air to side with the Petilil in her decision to join me. "Really, Dani? You too?" I ask her, Lily seeming just as surprised. "But I thought you were going to leave when you were healed!" She looks at her friend, shocked at her sudden change of heart.

Seeing the Petilil's confusion, Dani decides to explain why she wanted to stay here. "Well, it's because Jay's team is really freaking tough, and I don't wanna get caught by any other humans by accident and get used like that again." She tells Lily, growling at the mention of her darker past. "And besides, Jay… isn't that bad." She adds, looking away as she utters out that last bit in a hushed whisper. Seeing her act like this is quite cute if I'm to be honest, so I unexpectedly let out a chuckle in response to her actions. "Hey! What's so funny, huh!?" She shouts, trying to get me to stop laughing at her. "Nah, it's nothing. You're really cute when you're being all bashful, ya know? It's not like you at all to be like that, but it's really cute to me." I explain to her, making her smile when she hears that. "Alright, ya dumbass. It's fine if you think of it like that. So, are ya gonna let me join your team along with Lily?" She asks me, to which I nod in response to her question. "Do Cottonee have cotton on their bodies? Don't ask dumb questions, Dani." I smirk, making her smirk in return. "Yeah, yeah, smartass. Just make sure I get to sleep in a bit, alright? A girl gets cranky if she doesn't sleep enough, and you sure as hell don't wanna see me when I'm angry." She warns me lightheartedly and grins my way, making me grin back at her. "Alright, then. I'll make sure of it. Welcome to the team, you two." I reply, Lily smiling upon seeing us get along after some silence. Chell surfaces to smile and wave at the two as well, having heard most of our conversation from the relative comfort of the lake.

"Say, how did the both of you get in the hands of those rich pricks anyhow? I've been wondering that for a bit now, but I never really got to ask you two about it." I ask the two Grass Types, curious as to how their lives used to be. Lily is immediately reminded of something she most likely didn't want to remember, and her expression grows sad as a result. Dani seems to be quite hesitant to tell me anything about herself either, as her face now holds some traces of a scowl as she remembers her past as well. Seeing this, I decide to drop the subject for now. "Well, if ya don't feel like talking, it's fine. I can wait. I'll go talk to the others in the meantime." I reply, making sure to give the two some space to chat alone.

"Wait." I hear Dani speak up, her face unreadable as she approaches my avatar. "Yeah?" I ask her, to which she lets loose a sigh, before looking at me with a slightly saddened expression. "I'll tell you our story, then." She starts, getting me to sit down and listen in. "We used to live together in the same forest, with my family and Lily's. It was small, but we liked each other because we were Grass Types." She speaks, smiling a bit as she remembers some of the good times she had as a kid. However, her face darkens considerably as she scowls all of a sudden. "Then the humans came along. They cut down our trees, one by one. They fought us with Bug Types, and we couldn't do anything to fight back. So, when we lost our home, they caught us all. We were separated from our parents, and they forced us to watch what they did next." She chokes, Lily shedding some tears as she heard what her friend had to say.

"They… they…" Lily sobs, unable to hold back the flow of sadness coming to her. "They fed them to their Scolipede and then sold us out to traders. Their pained screaming is something I'll always remember, even to this day." She finishes, crying a little herself as she forces herself to tell me her story. My face darkens when I hear that, my avatar pulling them in for a hug as they cry their hearts out. "Don't worry, you two. I'll find them, and make sure those assholes get what they deserve." I snarl, furious at how humans had treated them in the past. Chell also looks pissed off, her paws clenched as she hears them out. Lily takes this moment to look up at me, a small smile on her tear-ridden face. "But then you came along, and showed us kindness that we had long since forgotten." She adds, making Dani nod despite herself. "Yeah. You were nice to us, where other people weren't. You showed us that the world of humans wasn't all bad. Thanks for that, Jay." She mumbles, nuzzling herself into my chest as Lily nods with a teary smile. "Yes. Thank you for your kindness, Sir. I'm so glad we met you…" She sniffs, making me smile as well. "Yeah, I'm happy that I met you too." I tell her, hearing their breathing slow as they close their eyes and fall asleep. I hold a finger to my lips in order to tell Chell, and she gets it, nodding as she quiets down.

"They're cute like this, aren't they Mister Jay?" She smiles sadly at the two, while I nod. "Yup. Come on, Chell. We need to be ready when we find those humans that hurt them." I tell her, getting her to nod while I pull out the card that the Plasma Grunt dropped. "Maybe this'll lead us to something helpful…" I muse, holding it up to my eyes in the silent living room.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

[Jay]

"Really, Gramps!? I can't believe you forgot about that!" Joey groans as he belittles his grandfather, much to my amusement. We're standing at the edge of Pinwheel Forest amidst the swampy areas riddled with puddles and grass, as we had forgotten to do something important amidst the chaos of today's bug attack. The team has since decided to take a nap inside the AVR, having been through no small amount of ordeals since the day had begun. As such, I am the only one standing next to the two as Joey continues to tell off his elder. "The young are now teaching the old. Oh, how the tables have turned…" I grin as I whisper into the old man's ear, Joey's grandpa smiling in reply to my witty remark.

"To be fair, my memory's not what it used to be. I am getting rather old, after all." He retorts in a joking manner, defending himself from our accusations. I smirk as Joey simply shakes his head. "Let's just let the bugs go. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get outta this cold air. Brr!" He shivers, the chilly wind of the night biting at his exposed skin. He didn't wear any long pants like his grandfather, nor did he pack a hoodie like I did. I guess Cleo was right about him not thinking things through, eh?

But that's not important right now. What is, however, is the release of the Venipede that Joey's Grandfather had somehow forgotten. Joey's Grandpa had tried to take some of his Mareep to the nearby water troughs to drink without carrying them himself, so he decided to use his TBA to digitalize them and walk over to the troughs. However, he had forgotten the Venipede he had stored inside the device. Not only that, he had forgotten to charge the gauntlet before he had used it for the rest of the day, causing the bugs to exit stasis early due to lack of power to maintain their frozen state and roam around the digital space of the AVR. As such, he needed to release them as soon as possible, as to not have all this free space in the AVR taken up by unruly bugs. "Ready?" I ask the old man, to which he nods. "Remember, Joey. Prepare to run once the little buggers appear completely." I warn the kid, getting him to nod in reply. "Yeah, I know." Typing in the commands to make a bulk release of the Venipede, Joey's Grandfather points the exit point of the gauntlet to the ground in front of us as he presses the button to extract the Venipede from the AVR and materialize them.

As the bugs materialize out of the gauntlet and in front of us, we prepare to run out of their attacking range in case they decide that vengeance upon their captors is a suitable option. Venipede are very aggressive, after all. They always seem to be out for blood whenever they fight for territory, or when they're simply fending off other threats. However, once they fully form, they don't seem to have any intention of doing what I thought they would do. Although some of them let out a hiss or two as a warning for us to back off, they don't intentionally lash out at us. They are injured from the fighting earlier, but they should have attacked us anyway. "Why aren't they trying to hurt us?" Joey asks, truly befuddled by this strange sight. "It is quite odd. Usually, we'd be running like the wind by now." His grandpa adds, getting a nod from me. There is one Venipede that is hissing and glaring at the others as it observes them, making sure that they fall back into the group and not attack us. I guess it's the leader of the group, huh?

As soon as the last Venipede materializes, they quickly turn to leave, moving en masse like a large purple wave of scuttling and hissing. However, I notice a small bump over which the other Venipede are scuttling over, completely ignoring whatever's under their feet. At first, as Joey and his Grandfather turn to leave, I assume it to be a rock or something so I begin to follow them back to the farm. However, as soon as the swarm has fully retreated back into the forest, the moonlight gives me a more accurate look at what that bump was. It's a Venipede, a mite smaller than the average one, just lying there on the ground, barely moving. It lets out a weak hiss before laying its head down onto the ground, eyes closed as if in acceptance of its abandonment by its brethren. I see that it's paralyzed and weakened by the fight from earlier, which makes me extremely guilty to see it in pain like this. I know that Venipede are numerous and that they habitually leave the weak to die, but still…

As I look to the poor little bug, left to die by its swarm, I shake my head and turn to leave. It's the way nature's supposed to be, right? Then why does it feel so wrong to leave it like that? I clench my fist as I think about that, making up my mind. Screw it. This Venipede is not going to die. Not here, not now. I quickly kneel next to the barely conscious insect, pulling out a Potion and a Paralyze Heal from my backpack. Using my hoodie as barrier between the insect and my skin, I pick it up in order to inspect its wounds and apply the potion as needed. Spraying the Potion on the cuts and scrapes on its carapace, I sigh in relief as the cuts close and heal up. I wince once I see a claw marking on its left side, indicating that Katrina got to this one first. Once all the cuts are closed, the Venipede finally opens its eyes. "Ugh…" It groans, to which I gently pet it through my hoodie. "Hold still. You're not fully healed yet, so I'm gonna use this on you." I tell it, holding up the bottle of Paralyze Heal in my hand. It struggles weakly for a bit, and even manages to bite into my hand, leaving a hole in both my hoodie and my flesh. I hiss in pain, but I persevere.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you. Just let me do that much, okay?" I tell the struggling bug, which gets it to hold still. I apply some of it to the bug, which quickly cures it of its paralysis. As it gets up and off the ground, I put my hoodie back on. "There ya go, bud. All better now. Now go on, before you lose the group. They didn't leave too long ago, so you should be able to catch up." I tell it, only for it to hiss threateningly at me as it quickly retreats into the woods, making me sigh as I get up to leave. That was mean. But I do feel better after helping it, so that's a plus in my book.

I quickly run after Joey and his grandpa, catching up to them and quickly slowing my pace down to match theirs. "Whew, you guys walk fast. I almost lost ya for a second there." I grin wryly, while Joey looks at me suspiciously. His grandfather on the other hand, stares at me with a knowing smile. I guess he saw the good deed I did back there, huh? "We weren't walking that fast at all. You just lagged behind as we walked away, because Gramps told me you were interested in something. What was it?" He asks me, getting me to point behind us towards the forest. "A small Venipede got hurt and was left behind by its friends, so I helped it out." I reply, getting Joey to look at me in surprise. "Wait, what?" He asks, in disbelief that I had actually helped one out. "Yeah, I was kinda about to leave it to die, too. But it was a suffering Pokemon after all, and I hate seeing Pokemon suffer." I tell him making Joey's look of disbelief to turn into one of admiration.

"How do you do that?" He asks, making me look at him with confusion. "What do you mean, how do I do that?" I respond, asking for some elaboration on the matter. "How you're so nice to other Pokemon! They didn't do anything to you, but you do so much for them! You don't even get anything in return, not even a 'thank you'! So why do you do all this?" He asks, really confused as to why I would do anything for complete strangers. "Well, think about it like this. If you saw someone really happy due to what you did for them, how would you feel?" I ask, expecting the answer that almost everyone would pick. Sure enough, Joey scoffs as he answers me the way I felt he would. "Duh. I'd feel happy about it." He rolls his eyes, making me chuckle. "See, that right there is exactly what makes me do things like that. If it makes them happy, then I am also happy. That happiness right there is more than enough in return for my deeds." I answer him, making him scratch his head, still confused. "I don't get it." He admits, making me grin. "Let's just say that to me, happiness is priceless." I tell him, making him even more confused, as Joey's grandpa simply smiles at me. I think that he feels exactly the same way I do…

Once we reach the house, I quickly set down my things for the night. Joey's grandfather had left to give the Mareep their drink, and Joey is busy upstairs with his homework. Since Joey and his grandfather were kind enough to let me sleep in their house for the night, I decided not to decline their offer. Well, not exactly offered. Joey wanted me to sleep with them for a night, like a sleepover. His grandfather had no choice to agree with the kid's opinion, as Joey probably would have been really upset otherwise. As I check my phone for any important calls that may have come my way, I hear the sounds of the shower turning on as the two other human occupants of the house undoubtedly prepare for a bath to end off the day. That seems to be a good idea. Might as well get the rest of the team cleaned up too, while I'm at it. I quickly tap into the AVR on my TBA again, to bring up a view of the ranch and get a bead on what the team's up to. As I look around, they seem to have congregated into one spot on the grassy plains area of the ranch, and are simply chatting amongst themselves.

I approach them and make my avatar take a seat on the grass, catching the attention of the group of Pokemon. "Hello, Mister Jay." Chell nods in my general direction, turning away from her conversation with Nesia for now. "Greetings, Jay. We were simply discussing the introduction of our two most recent team members." Katrina tells me, her tail lazily swishing off to her side as she lies on her belly, her front paws placed like a sphinx's would be. Looking at Chell, I can't help but crack a grin. Of course Chell would tell the rest of the team. She might not appear to care, but deep down she cares about her friends the most. Alita is still nowhere to be seen, probably still flying about and enjoying the ranch from a higher angle. The two new teammates in question are still asleep, but they're beginning to stir despite being a fair distance away from where all the talking is taking place.

I'm suddenly jerked away from the sight of the two Grass Types, due to the sudden feeling of a slim, scaly body that had decided to rest itself in my lap. Looking down, I see Nesia's serious gaze directed towards me, her unblinking eyes staring into mine. It doesn't take a rocket scientist of figure out what she wants me to do, as her sudden advance is more than enough proof that she wants some physical contact. "Want me to pet you again?" I ask her, making her nod as she wraps her vines around one of my arms and tugs on it lightly. Smiling at the eager snake, my avatar reaches down to give her scaly head a gentle rub. Nesia seems to like it too, if her newly acquired smile and her sighs of bliss are anything to go by. Her vines have retracted back into the sides of her neck, and her tail is starting to wiggle more from side to side. "Master, I feel so happy when you do this…" She sighs happily, making me roll my eyes as she melts into my hand. Luckily for me, the avatar is made to emulate the natural body temperature of the wearer. "Then I'll make sure to do this as many times as you want me to." I promise her, the Servine opening her eyes to look at me with an expression of delight.

From the corner of my eye I can see that Chell looks to be quite envious of Nesia, who's hogging all of the available lap space. However, her expression remains stoic despite her gaze of longing. "Come on, Chell. You can join in on the petting, too." I tell her, getting her to timidly walk over to my side. Without a second thought, I reach out to pat her furry head as well, getting Chell to smile blissfully herself as she feels the full effects of a good head patting. She sits down in order for me to get a better angle, and also partially due to the fact that she wanted to enjoy the head pats better herself. Even though I'm not touching them for real, I can practically feel the joy radiating off them through the screen.

"Was there anything interesting on the farm to do, Jay? We didn't see you for a while after you logged out." Katrina asks me, slinking over to lie down next to my avatar and the two starter Pokemon. "Well, we had to let the Venipede go. Apparently, Joey's gramps forgot about the little buggers. He didn't realize that he had them still inside his own TBA until he wanted to take his Mareep out for a drink at the lake nearby." I tell her, getting her to raise an eyebrow as she hears me out. "He forgot them?" She repeats, making me nod. "Yup. Older humans tend to forget things more often, so I don't really blame him. I also helped out one of the Venipede that the swarm had left behind. It looked like it was in some real pain, so I used some of my Poitons on it." I tell her, making her shake her head in response. "I'll never understand why you care so much about anything that's suffering, hostile or not." She sighs in exasperation, before a smile forms on her face again. "However, that's exactly why I find your presence to be enjoyable. You're so kind and supportive towards me, even though I had hurt you intentionally the first time we met…" She trails off, looking a little guilty that she had done that to me. "Nah, it's fine. Self defense and all that. Besides, it doesn't hurt anymore." I tell her, getting her to perk up again, a cute little smile forming on her face. I smile back at her, before I finally remember what I had come to them for.

"Oh, yeah. I was going to take a bath, and I wanted to get you girls cleaned up, too. Wanna come?" I ask her, to which she quickly nods. "A bath sounds delightful, Jay. I do feel rather unclean." She replies, to which I then address Chell and Nesia. "You two wanna take a bath, too? Today was a little rough after all, and I highly doubt you two stayed clean after all that's happened." I suggest, getting Nesia to nod from her comfortable position in my lap. "Sure thing, Mister Jay. A bath sounds nice." Chell speaks up, getting me to nod as I look around for any trace of Alita. Where could she have gone off to? There's no trace of her from my screen, so she should be…

"Oh, hey there Jay. What's up?" Alita greets me, her voice sounding from behind me as she lands next to the rest of us. My suspicions proven to be correct, I turn around to face her. "I wanted to give you girls a bath. I feel dirty, the rest of the team feels dirty, so I'd be surprised if you didn't feel the same way." I reply, making the Tranquill nod. "Yeah, I'm feeling it alright. A cleaning sounds good to me." She agrees.

"Ugh, what's with the noise…" I hear Dani groan from her spot, as Lily comes to with a cute yawn. As she sees me, she immediately sports a small smile. "Hello, Sir. What brings you here?" She asks, to which I explain nice and quick. "We're taking a bath, to get ourselves cleaned up. I think you should join too, 'cause your leaves are looking a bit dirty." I suggest, making her nod quickly as she hops over to my avatar's position. I decide to ready Dani for the incoming teleportation as well, as her cotton coat is looking a little dirty to me. "Alright girls, I need you all to hold still for this, as the re-materialization process is the same as the digitalization process." I tell them, punching in the command necessary for the materialization. As the process begins, the team all disappear from the AVR, and my gauntlet begins to project and area for the Pokemon that were selected to reappear. The materialization process takes much less time than the digitalization, and the Pokemon reappear in no time at all.

As soon as they get used to the real world again, I prepare my clothes for myself to use, and get out the scented soaps that the team had chosen for themselves. I also make sure to get some extra towels to dry the girls off, as Joey's grandfather probably wouldn't be pleased to find that I had used some of his towels to clean off my Pokemon of their dirt. As I pick up my stuff to walk towards the bathroom, I notice that my underwear is missing. I only had to turn around for a few seconds in order to get the soap, and I clearly remember putting my underwear on top of my clothing pile. I almost go to search for a new pair of underwear, before I realize something. Looking around, I see that Katrina had taken to putting her tail behind her back again, and she is standing suspiciously close to my clothing pile. "Kat, give me my underwear back. I need that, ya know." I sigh, reaching behind the feline's back and pulling out my pair of boxers. She gives off that cute huff as I expose her cheeky little play, her pout unexplainably adorable. "You're quite the killjoy, you know." She frowns playfully, making me shrug. "I'm not. I like jokes too, ya know."

"Speaking of which, hey Ali. What's that under there?" I ask Alita while I point to the table close to our position. "Wait, where?" She questions me, looking quite confused as to what I had my eyes on. "Ya know, that thing under there." I tell her, trying hard to hold back my laughter. Luckily for me, Alita didn't notice, and she fell for my joke trap hook, line and sinker. "Under where?" She asks, finally getting me to laugh out loud. "Ha, I got you to say underwear." I snicker, making the Tranquill fume as she flies up to slap me upside the head with her wing. "God damn it, you idiot! Why do you always have to make stupid jokes!?" She groans, only serving to fuel Dani's own amusement, making her snicker as well. "Ha! Jay gotcha good, Ali." She grins, making Chell giggle as well. "You were the one who fell for that, Ali." The Dewott smiles, as Nesia simply does an eye roll in my direction. "I don't get it." Lily speaks up, making me pat her leaves. "Eh, don't worry about it. I just find it funny."

"Besides, it beaks being a killjoy, am I right?" I grin, making another pun and making Alita rage even more. "Jay, I swear to God!" She yells at me, while Katrina giggles at the bird's outburst. I then quickly use my hands to hug Alita and cradle her feathery body, making her gasp in surprise as she feels my hands take hold of her. "Hey! What the hell!?" She shouts before I pat her head with my hand, making her involuntarily let out a coo of enjoyment as her face flushes in embarrassment. "Okay, Ali. As an apology, I'll hold you like this after we take a bath. Sound good?" I ask her, to which she quickly settles down and stays quiet in my embrace. "Fine. But you'd better hold me for as long as I want you to, got it?" She growls, getting me to nod in reply. "Sure. I don't mind, holding someone as cute and powerful as you." I grin, making her freeze and blush redder as she hides her face in my chest. "Not cute. Stupid idiot." She mutters, making me chuckle. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, team. Let's go get cleaned up." I speak, getting the girls to follow me and find the bathroom.

It doesn't take me too long to find the bathroom, as the house is only of moderate size. Opening the door, I look around the place to find a bathtub and a sink, as well as a showering cubicle. The cubicle and the bathtub are close to each other, and the glass walls of the cubicle are transparent. Well, I guess this could work if I stand with my back to the team's general point of view. Turning on the water for the bathtub, I set the water temperature to a lukewarm setting, and plugging the bottom of the tub with the rubber plug. "Well, it should take a while for the water to build up, so I'm gonna take a shower first." I tell the team, seeing Chell look at me in a confused manner. "Mister Jay, why are you showering with those on?" She asks, gesturing to my clothing.

Meanwhile, Nesia simply looks confused. "What do you mean?" She asks Chell, making me point to my clothes. Dani and Lily look a little stumped too, as they look at Chell with the same confusion Nesia showed. "Yeah, Chell. What do you mean, with those on?" Dani asks, making me tug at my shirt. "This isn't my actual skin, ya know. These are clothes we humans wear, in order to hide our bodies from the public. We can't really go around nude, as it's a human law to wear clothes outside." I explain, Dani looking at my clothes with scrutiny. "That sounds really dumb." She comments, making Nesia look at me in fascination. "So, they cover your skin, Sir?" Lily asks, surprised that what she had been seeing wasn't really my skin. "Yup. They cover my skin as well as my sexy bits. You know, my penis." I explain, getting Katrina in particular to blush. "But now, I need to take them off for showering. Hold on, just let me get these pants off me…" I mutter, taking off my pants to reveal my boxers.

"Seriously!? Your wear freaking clothes under your clothes!? What the actual fuck!?" Alita groans, seeing my underwear. "Yeah. Otherwise, we'll stink up our pants with how much we sweat down there." I tell her, making her groan along with Dani. "Human rules are stupid." She sighs, to which I ignore her and throw my pants off to the side. Katrina can't help but flush a bit when she sees my bulge. "My my, Jay. You seem to be quite well endowed." She comments, making me blush. The rest of the team seems to be a little red in the face and uncomfortable themselves, with them trying their best to not stare. "Master's thing looks big…" Nesia mutters, making me cough. "Thanks, but I'm not letting you see my dick. Turn around, you perverts." I wave them off, getting them to all turn around quickly in sheer embarrassment.

Now with that out of the way, I turn on the showerhead to a steaming setting and place my towel and clothes, as well as my Xtranceiver atop the doorframe of the cubicle, stepping in as the glass fogs up in order to ensure my parts don't get accidentally seem by prying eyes. "Okay, girls. Wait for the tub to fill and turn the water off when it's almost full." I call out to them, to make sure the tub doesn't overflow before I'm done. I hear Chell call back in her native tongue, her voice stuttering a bit. Chuckling a bit, I squeeze out some of the soap from the bottle, applying the substance to my body. As I rub the stuff over my own body, I sigh and take in a deep breath, smelling the scent of flowers filling the air and finally giving me some temporary peace.

(Meanwhile, outside the shower cubicle…)

"I mean, don't you wanna see how he looks down there?" Dani suddenly asks Lily out of the blue, the Petilil blushing hard as she hears her friend's question. "But isn't that what he doesn't want us to see?" She replies, making the Cottonee roll her eyes in exasperation. "But I wanna see what he looks like without his clothes! Don't you wanna know if he has fur?" She presses on with her questions, making the shy Petilil blush even harder as she thinks about her Trainer's lower area. "I don't want to see it." Nesia suddenly speaks up, making Dani glare in the Servine's general direction. "You're not helping!" She tells Lily, who shakes her head. "I don't think Jay wants us to see, so we shouldn't." She defends her own opinion, to which Chell calmly nods in agreement to from the sidelines. "Mister Jay told us not to, so we shouldn't. It's going to make him hate us." She adds, before Katrina walks up to the Dewott. "Come now, Chell. Aren't you the least bit curious as to how big he is? I for one, would love to know that." She looks at the Dewott slyly, to which Chell shakes her head. "N-no, I don't." She defends herself, despite her face showing a hint of red. Alita however, scoffs in response to the chatting. "Well, I for one don't care about how that idiot looks down there." She huffs, turning away with a red face. "Aw, come on Ali. I'm sure you want to see it too, right?" Dani grins, making the Tranquill stutter. "N-no! I said I didn't want to see how he looked! It's not like I give a damn, anyways!" She yells, albeit with uncertainty.

"Well, I wish to find out what he looks like. So, I suggest that we move his clothes somewhere he can't reach without having to move outside of the shower." She grins cheekily, getting Dani to nod. "Sounds good to me." She replies, in agreement of the plan. Chell and Nesia overhear the conversation and prepare to step in, Chell's paws reaching for her blades. But, before she can do anything to enact her plan, or for Nesia and Chell to intervene, Jay's voice suddenly rings out from the other side of the door. "Kat, don't you even think about taking my clothes." He warns, making the Liepard sigh as she hears the showerhead turn off. "Well, there goes that idea." She mutters dejectedly to herself, saddened by the loss of a prime opportunity to undress her Trainer. Dani also sighs in disappointment, having missed a prime chance.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46

[Jay]

"Seriously, you two? What the heck made you two think that was a good idea?" I sigh in exasperation, the two tricksters suddenly finding the ground a lot more interesting than my face. "It was her idea!" Dani suddenly yells, pointing a leaf in the direction of her partner in crime. "For the record, you took part in formulating the plan." Katrina shoots back, both sides trying to pawn off the blame on the other. "Girls, please don't. The both of you are guilty, so don't try and make the other take the blame." I tell them off gently but sternly, the two shrinking back a bit upon hearing my words. "We're sorry." They apologize, making me shake my head. Chell simply shakes her head along with Nesia, while Alita seems to be rather indifferent of the conversation. Lily sighs, seeing her friend get herself into trouble despite her words of warning.

"I forgive you two. Sometimes, I wish you two would behave a bit more…" I sigh, before taking a look at the bath I was setting up. "Come on, girls. Get in the tub. It's easier to clean you if you're all in one place." I tell them, Chell and Nesia quickly entering the warm water, Nesia shivering in bliss once she hits the bath. She's cold-blooded, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that she would enjoy the bath more than the others. Alita swoops in next, landing into the water without much difficulty. However, her wing beats do end up making quite the splash in the water, hitting an unexpected pair of starter Pokemon. The two in question glare at the bird, making her a little nervous. "What? It's just a little water, you two. Don't get all pushy about it." She defends herself, before Chell and Nesia come to a mental conclusion and look at each other. "You thinking what I'm thinking, Ness?" Chell looks at the Servine, who nods her head in reply. "Yes." She grins, Chell following suit as they advance on the waterlogged bird. "Wait, what are you two doing?" Alita chuckles nervously with a sheepish grin, backing away slowly as the two close in on her.

Nesia doesn't say much, but what she does say simplifies the goal of their attack. "Vengeance." She replies, suddenly snaking out her vines and holding Alita in place by her wings and legs. "H-hey! What are you-" The now captured Tranquill starts, but she doesn't get to finish as Chell begins to relentlessly tickle her victim with her paw digits, Nesia making sure that the hapless bird doesn't struggle out of reach of Chell's assault. "No, wait! Help meheeheeheehee! Don't tickle me there! Anywhere but thehehehehehere!" Alita manages to force out in between her fits of laughter, but Chell keeps up her attack on the underside of her wings, making sure that this particular tickle nuke was especially disarming.

As I watch from the sidelines, Katrina giggles at the hilarious predicament that Alita had gotten herself into. "It seems that someone is a little tied up at the moment." She jokes, making me chuckle as I watch them go at it. "Heh, no kidding. Now come on, Kat. Into the tub ya go." I tell her, lifting her slender form into the bathtub. She tenses up upon contact with the water, but she relaxes when she sees the team's shenanigans. Deciding to join in, she uses her wet tail to tickle the bird's neck, making her devolve into crazed, almost breathless laughing. Lily watches the scene from the safety of the outside of the bath, shuddering as she sees the tickle torture that Alita's being put through. "I feel ticklish all over just watching them." She comments, making Dani nod in reply. "Yeah, I sure wouldn't want to get caught up in that." She agrees, while I lift Lily up and into the bath. She takes to her new environment quickly, mainly due to the extra buoyancy that her bulbous head gives her, resulting in her floating on top of the water without much effort. She still needs to look out for stray waves made by the splashing of the other team members, as they could easily make waves that cover her head.

The team has gotten tired of tickling the life out of Alita at this point, and Nesia gently releases her grip on her avian friend. She lies there in the water, panting as she tries to recuperate from that crippling assault. "Hah… hah… hah… That wasn't fair at all… "She pants, making Chell grin as she sees the results of her handiwork. "See, Ali? You shouldn't splash someone like that, unless you want to get nuked." She states, Nesia nodding with a smile of her own. Shaking my own head as I stare at the group, as Katrina lifts the Petilil onto her back, mindful not to accidentally splash the little Grass Type. Lily lets out a giggle as she feels the feline's tail wrap around her body, Katrina allowing herself a smile at the Petilil in reply. However, Dani seems to be rather reluctant to enter the water, despite her friend already having done so. Noticing this, I quickly realize what's going on. Cottonee are afraid of water, despite their typing advantage over it. If their coats get wet, they cannot float in the air. So, they spray cotton everywhere as an emergency defense if they ever do get wet.

"You afraid of the water, Dani?" I ask her, the Grass Type hesitating for a bit before answering my question. "Yeah." She mutters, getting Katrina to look towards her with a sense of empathy. "She's always been scared of the water, Sir." Lily speaks up, getting me to nod in understanding. Deciding not to waste anymore time, I pick Dani up and hold her with both hands. She seems surprised at the sudden action, but she doesn't complain. "Now listen to me, Dani. I'm going to slowly lower you into the water." I tell her, which quickly gets her to start panicking. "Wait a sec! I don't wanna! Put me down!" She yells, struggling in my grasp. However, my hands hold hr cotton coat firmly, preventing her escape. "Calm down, Dani. I know it's scary, but I'm gonna need you to trust me on this one. Trust me, like you trusted me and joined the team." I soothe, trying to convince her to believe in me. "It's fine, Dani. It's only water." Chell tries to reason with Dani, Nesia nodding as she dunks her head underwater to get it wet. "Yeah! You scared of a little water or something?" Alita taunts her, trying to spur her on. However, this proves to be rather ineffective. "But I'm scared, Jay. The water's scary..." She whimpers, shaking in my grasp as I lower her nearer to the water.

"I know it is, but you can trust me to help you through this. Let me help you, Dani." I persist in my attempts to persuade her, trying to get her to relax so I can clean out her cotton. She pauses for a bit, considering her options, before finally relenting and relaxing in my hands. "Okay. Just do it." She speaks up, to which I nod before slowly letting her cotton coat touch the water. She immediately tenses up for a bit, her eyes widening in fear. I stop once I feel her do so, observing to see whether or not she would like to keep going. However, she musters up her own courage, taking some deep breaths before looking to me and nodding to indicate that she's ready to continue. "Alright, then." I affirm her choice, lowering her completely into the lukewarm liquid. She seems to be scared to death about getting her coat wet, but after she tests to see that the water only gets her wet, she calms down and decides to look around for a bit until she sees Lily. Smirking, she then splashes water into the face of her friend.

"Hey!" Lily giggles, feeling the water get her body wet again. Smiling as Lily jumps into the water, determined to get vengeance on Dani, I grab the soap and approach the tub. "Come on, girls. Let's get some soap going, yeah?" I tell them, squeezing some of the scale soap into my hand and applying it to Nesia's body. "Ness, I need you to close your eyes for a sec. If this stuff gets inside, it'll sting." I explain, Nesia nodding and shutting her eyes. Immediately, the soap makes Nesia slippery and allows me to rub it all over her body. Lifting her out of the water, I quickly apply the soap to her lower body, mindful to be careful around any of her more sensitive areas. She sighs happily as my hands caress her body, feeling the comfortable difference in temperature. As I lower her back into the water, my job done, I quickly cup water in my hands and splash it over her head, clearing off any and all soap that I had applied to her. She opens her eyes again, seeing me reaching for a clean towel.

"You're all cleaned up, Ness. If you'll step out of the bathtub, I can get you dried up." I tell her, holding up the towel in preparation to dry her up. However, she immediately shakes her head and lowers it back into the water. I'll take that as a negative, then. Shrugging, I move on to the others, applying the fur conditioner to my hands and lathering it up. Chell is up first on my list, as I quickly reach out and place my soapy hands against her wet fur. "Hold still now, kiddo. Let's get ya cleaned up, shall we?" I tell her, Chell nodding as she closes her eyes. I quickly rub the soap into her fur, the stuff already taking effect and rendering her coat slippery and covered in bubbles. One lands on her nose, which makes her sneeze by accident. It lands on my hand, which makes me chuckle at the cute display before I squeeze out more soap and apply it to the rest of the team. In Alita's case, I simply apply the fur conditioner on her as well, since feathers aren't too far off from fur. "This stuff feels weird." She comments as I rub it into her wings, the stuff quickly making them slippery as well. "Yeah, but it gets rid of the dirt on you." I reply, finishing up and splashing them all down with water.

Once they're cleaned, I take out a towel. "Now that you're all washed up, wanna get dry now?" I ask, Alita groaning at the pun. "No." Nesia's answer is plain and simple, lowering her head back beneath the water to emphasize her point. "I'm not going back out yet, either." Chell seconds that notion, sitting down in the water. "The water's nice and warm, Sir." Lily nods, sighing as she enjoys the temperature for herself. "Yeah, I'm not ready to leave yet. I got something I need to do first." Alita adds, gaining a smirk as she eyes me. Seeing her smirk like that gives me a bad feeling, but I decide to hear her out anyway. "And what would that be?" I ask, seeing Katrina and Dani get the same wide grin on their faces.

"Oh, nothing. Consider it as revenge for all those puns." She chuckles darkly, while Katrina simply gives me her trademark sly grin. "You have already done it to us, so I believe it to be fair if we get to do the same." Katrina speaks up, Dani nodding as she readies herself for something. "You got us good, so now we think that we should return the favor." She finishes, lifting up her leafy appendages as Katrina lowers her tail and Alita lowers her wings. I finally get what they're up to, but I figure it out a second too late. "Uh oh." I gulp. That's all I have time to say, before a wave of soapy water crashes down onto me, courtesy of Alita's wings, Katrina's tail, and Dani's leaves. The resulting wave leaves my clothes soaked through and wets the floor, leaving a large puddle of water beneath my crouching form.

"Damn it." I sigh, looking down at my wet shirt as Katrina, Alita and Dani laugh their heads off. "Hah! Gotcha!" Alita laughs, giggling as I roll my eyes with a smile of defeat. "You have to admit, that was rather hilarious." Katrina giggles herself, while Chell joins in on the laughter. Nesia simply shakes her head, and Lily can't help but giggle a bit at my soaked state of being. "Alright, you got me good. Just let me change out of these clothes and get some new ones, and I'll be back to get you girls out of the bath, okay?" I tell them, getting Nesia and Chell to nod. "Yeah, yeah. Just don't take too long, alright? I feel like I'll never fly again…" Dani shudders, dreading the thought of being grounded forever. "No, you won't. You'll still fly later, just not when you're all wet." I sigh, taking off my shirt in order to leave it on the bathroom floor. I'd come back for it later, just not when it's soaking wet. I don't want to have to take care of drying up the floor while I'm at it, too.

In my haste to get some dry clothes however, I seem to have forgotten something important. As soon as my shirt hits the wet floor with a splat and I open my eyes, I see that the entire team's eyes are wide open in both shock and disgust. "Uh, girls? Is there something on my face?" I ask, utterly confused as to what they were gaping at. "There's so many…" Lily whispers, looking my chest over with her eyes threatening to tear up. "Mister Jay…" Chell sniffs, tears already falling from her eyes and down her cheeks. Nesia says nothing, and neither does Katrina, but both of them suddenly find the ground much more interesting. Alita in particular, seems to be extremely guilty about what she's seeing, and Dani is simply in disbelief.

As I look to my chest, I suddenly realize what they're all staring at. My chest of hideous scars is fully on display, the array of slashes, cuts and needle holes in plain view. Well, shit. This is gonna take some explaining to do. "Well, this was unexpected to say the least, eh?" I chuckle nervously, Chell immediately latching onto me and crying her heart out. Nesia does so as well, sobbing away with her head nuzzled in my chest. Seeing Alita's look of guilt, I decide to clear things up first. "And no, Ali. This wasn't because of you. If it was, they would have faded by the time I'd finished healing." I sigh, patting her on the head. She begins to cry as well, seeing my scars.

"Hey, now. It's only a bunch of scars and holes on me. It isn't that bad, honest." I try to calm them down, but Alita suddenly jerks her head to yell at me. "Not that bad!? You look like you were torn to bits!" She screams, tears running down her face as she says so. Lily can't take the sight of my chest anymore, and begins to cry. I hold the sobbing Petilil in my arms, petting her large leaves comfortingly. "Hey now, it's okay. It doesn't hurt too much anymore. I'll be fine, Lily." I whisper, making her calm down. Sighing, I hold up the towel. "Well, I'll get you girls dried up first. Then, I'll tell you what happened and how I got these. Sound good?" I suggest, Chell nodding as she cries softly. "Sure thing, Mister Jay." She says, albeit with a shaky voice.

Once we're all dry and on the couch in the living room, I start off my story. However, I remember to do one last thing before I do that. Reaching down, I pick Alita up and begin to caress her breast area and her wings with my hands. I don't forget to pet her head, either. She flinches upon my personal contact with her, but she relaxes quickly when I begin to pet her. "Hey, what's this for?" She asks me, getting me to look down at her. "I remember our little deal we made. Do you?" I reply, making her nod as I continue to pet her. "This feels nice." I hear her whisper, to which I chuckle.

"Alright, so where do I start?" I ponder out loud, holding a hand to my chin. As Nesia rolls her eyes, Dani groans. "The beginning, duh." She deadpans, making Lily giggle as I hold up the same hand in defense. "Okay, okay. It was a joke." I reply, before I clear my throat. "Okay, so you know how babies are made by this point, I'm sure. Baby Pokemon come from eggs, and baby humans get ejected from a female's vagina." I begin, to which Alita quickly interrupts. "I know that, but what does this have to do with you?" She asks, Nesia joining in on the confusion. "I don't get it either." She says, making me sigh. "I was getting to that." I muse, making Alita chuckle sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Go on." She chuckles, while I continue on.

"But, I didn't come out of a vagina, nor did I come out of an egg. Instead, I was raised in a lab, using my father's DNA. I was made artificially in a capsule like the ones you see in Pokemon centers." I tell them, getting Nesia to look at me in fascination and wonder, while Katrina looks at me in interest. "So, did your father also have a large package?" She teases, making the rest of the team blush profusely while I cough. "Hey, now. That's not the point, so stop bringing it up." I sigh, making the feline giggle. "Alright, Jay. I was simply poking fun." She smiles, to which I sigh. "How did he make you?" Nesia asks me, to which I sweat drop upon seeing her shining eyes full of questions. "That's way too much information to tell you for now, so I'll tell you after I finish up here." I explain, getting her to calm down for now.

"So, after I was 'born', he decided to run lots and lots of tests on me. I was one of five test subjects that he had made this way, and I was the fifth and final one. I was the weakest out of all the others, due to my birth process being altered." I continue, seeing the team look at me in confusion. "But you look like a normal human to me." Lily speaks up, while Chell nods. "She's right. You look good, Mister Jay." She states, making me chuckle a bit. "Thanks, but I was the weakest in terms of magical energy. Basically, out of all the others that could use magic to attack, defend and heal, I was seemingly the weakest of them all." I told them, to which the team looks at me in surprise. "Wait, what? Magic?" Dani asks, now hooked on my origin story. "I am intrigued as well. What is this magic that you speak of?" Katrina adds, looking quite confused as to what I was referring to.

"Well, the organization that my dad worked for had discovered the truth behind the powers that Pokemon can use. It's because of the nature of their Souls. Due to the way that the Soul of a Pokemon is configured, a Pokemon can use certain moves depending on the specific magic type that their Soul is adhered to." I explain, getting a little into the technicalities of the subject. However I've already lost Alita in the explanation, her face now scrunched up in confusion. "Uh, what?" She asks, Katrina sharing the confusion of the Tranquill. "I do not really understand this Soul business, either." She adds, while the rest of the team has similar expressions of confusion, making me sigh. "Basically, Pokemon have Types. And those Types are related to their Souls. If a Pokemon has a soul of the Dark typing, it can use Dark Type moves, along with a few other moves." I simplify what I had just said, making Alita's facial expression change to one of understanding. "See? You should have just said that!" She huffs, to which I roll my eyes.

"So, I had the weakest magic of all my created brothers. However, I had one benefit that the others didn't have. You see, humans can't use Pokemon moves because their Souls are different, but they can store powerful magic inside their Souls. Such magic includes Green, Orange, Purple, Yellow, Blue, and Red. This energy is not expressed in powers or abilities, but rather in the expressions of the person itself. Green represents Kindness, Orange is Courage, Yellow is Justice, Purple is Perseverance, Blue is Patience, and Red is Determination." I explain, making Nesia nod as she hears me out. Judging by her expression, she's really excited about learning this stuff.

"So, can you see Souls?" Dani speaks up, getting interested in the topic herself. "As a matter of fact, you can. Here, let me show you yours." I tell her, holding out my hand and releasing a blue aura from my hand and my eye. The magic suddenly grabs a hold of the Cottonee, making her shudder upon contact with it. "It feels weird, but it feels nice too." She comments, feeling the soft glow of the magic surround her. "That's because you're being held by someone you feel comfortable around. The magic of a friend or loved one feels strange, but comfortably so." I explain, getting Chell to look at my eye to Dani, and then back again.

"Pick me up, please!" She suddenly speaks up, getting me to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "If you say so, kiddo." I tell her, lifting her up with my magic as well. She giggles upon contact with the aura, as I lift her into the air. "Higher, Mister Jay! Higher!" She giggles, making me smirk. "Okay, you asked for it!" I reply, lifting her higher into the air with my magic. "Okay, now that is cool." Alita adds, awed by my use of magic to lift her friend into the air. "That's amazing, Sir!" Lily cheers, making me chuckle. "Thanks, Lily. Now, just let me envelop you all with my magic…" I trail off, concentrating harder and enveloping all of the team in my blue magic. I then proceed to lift them into the air, a smirk forming on my face due to the results. "I have to say, this is quite extraordinary." Katrina comments, as she observes the house from a higher point of view.

After a bit, I lower them back down to the ground. Focusing on something different, I finally manage to reach inside their bodies and pull out their Souls for them to see. In front of their chests, a white, upside down heart forms. They're initially surprised by the sudden appearance of their physical Souls, but they soon get over it, now admiring their Souls as I hold them out. "Woah! So that's what they look like." Alita is the first to speak, getting me to smirk. I remember acting exactly the same way when I saw mine at first. Nesia says nothing, finding her Soul far more interesting than anything else at the moment. Katrina reaches out to hold hers with her tail, shivering upon contact. "It feels like fur is brushing against my skin. It feels quite pleasant." She sighs, as she gently rubs her Soul with her tail. "Yup. You feel whatever you touch with your Soul. It takes damage, too. In short, it's you but in heart form." I fill in for her, making Nesia poke her own soul in an experimental manner. She feels the after effects of the poke, and reels back a bit in shock.

"Why do all of our Souls look the same?" Chell asks, to which I resume my explanation. "Well, Pokemon Souls look the same because they channel magic, but don't store it. Human Souls look like yours, but are upside down and in color depending on their stored magic." I explain, before Nesia grabs my attention again. "Can we see your Soul?" She asks, her excitement barely contained behind her voice. "Alright, fine. But I'll tell you now, you may notice something different from what I told ya just now." I warn them, holding out my soul. The team looks at it in interest, seeing half of a right side up human Soul and a half of an upside down Pokemon Soul stuck together. The human side of the Soul is blue in color, while the Pokemon side of the Soul is red. The two halves seem to meld together in the middle, swirling into each other.

"That's your Soul? It looks so weird." Alita stares at it, making me deadpan. "Gee, thanks for the compliment. Anyways, my Soul is like this because of my origin. My dad fused Human DNA and Pokemon DNA to make me, which altered my soul in the process." I tell them, allowing my Soul to disappear back into my chest, as well as theirs. "But why is the Pokemon part of the Soul red? Pokemon can't store magic, right Mister Jay?" Chell asks, making me grin. "Nice observation, kiddo. Ya see, Pokemon Souls can't store magic. If they did, their bodies would melt due to the Soul's structure being unable to contain and use the magic inside. Pokemon can fuse with human Souls to gain their power, but the human's mind gets stuck in the Pokemon as a result. To avoid these issues, my dad made me half of both." I explain, before my facial expression darkens as I remember what happens next.

"My human half keeps me from melting away because it can store Determination, the red stuff. However, my brothers weren't as lucky. They all melted down trying to keep the stuff inside them. I was the only one that survived being injected with the stuff, hence the holes on my chest. The scars were when I tried to escape the place I was trapped in. I couldn't let me or my sister stay after what the boss of my dad tried to pull." I growl, clenching my fists, while the team grows concerned for me. "What happened?" Katrina asks, making me sigh. "Well, after I was made, my dad was not initially informed of what plans the organization that hired him had in store for me and my sister." I explain, Nesia looking a little confused as to what I was implying.

"Plans?" She repeats, making me nod. "Yup. The company named me the 5AN-5, which stood for the Fifth specimen of the Anomaly Neutralization Project, fifth generation. The first four generations failed miserably, and thus were shut down. However, after testing revealed my ability to use and store Determination, it allowed them to bring their plan into action. As such, they decided to focus on me, allowing me to make use of my eyes to focus magic and creating my sister, known as the Personal Assistant and Protector Installment, or PAPI for short. She's designed to protect me while I do my job. My job is to neutralize anomalies, like my name implies. The anomalies I'm killing are the Legendary Pokemon of the world, so that the organization could rule the world and effectively control all Pokemon in one fell swoop." Halfway through, I hear another collective gasp when I get to the killing of legendaries part. "Wait, so you were made to kill the Legendary Pokemon!? Those guys!? No way! That can't be it!" Alita shouts, in utter shock and disbelief that I could do that on my own. Nesia however, solidifies her faith in me. "Master never lies." She shoots a scowl her way, Chell seconding that. "Yeah! Mister Jay doesn't lie!" She adds, Alita pointing a wing my way. "But how could he kill the legendaries!?"

I clear my throat, getting the Tranquill to promptly quiet down. "Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah. My dad wasn't too happy about this plan, so he took the both of us and ran. But, he had to sacrifice himself to his own machine in order to let us live. He held them off with all he had, while I had to cut down a literal army of soldiers to escape, robots and people alike. Those bastards got in a lot of lucky hits in, and I almost died. However, my sister saved me with a subconscious burst of shielding magic that threw them all back, which gave me enough time to get away and run for it." I finish, leaving the team dumfounded as they soak in this information. "They used magic infused weaponry, so I couldn't heal the scars inflicted. My body was way too unstable for healing at the time, as the Determination hadn't fully set in yet. So, they stuck with me."

The team, Lily in particular, didn't seem too happy once I had finished, so I decided to lighten the mood some. "Seriously, you should have seen me starting out. I looked like a freakin' Muk, the way I was melting." I laugh, making Chell perk up just a tiny bit despite herself. "But we forced you to remember…" Dani chokes, tearing up. "I'm so sorry, Jay…" Alita sniffs, Katrina about to cry again herself as I shake my head. "Nah, it's fine. That was then, and this is now. There's no way you could have known, anyhow." I chuckle, hugging the three of them. "You are far too kind to us…" Katrina giggles shakily, to which I smile. "Why don't we sleep this off, and we can continue doing what we do tomorrow, yeah?" I suggest, Alita nodding with a smile. "Yeah."

However, I hadn't accounted for a certain someone listening in to my sob story. I suddenly hear the door behind me creak, and I quickly turn around in surprise. "Who's there?" I call out, a squeak of shock coming from said door before a certain Mareep steps out from behind the door with a sheepish look. "Uh, hey there." She chuckles nervously.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47

[Jay]

"Ah'm sorry fer peekin' in on yer conversation back there, Mister." Cleo apologizes, making me chuckle as I sit on the couch with her. "Nah, it's no biggie. I should have noticed you, anyway. I guess this just means that my skill with magic's getting rusty, huh?" I reply, making her look at me as I flip through the television channels in search of something interesting. "Besides, you looked a mite sheepish when you got caught, so I suppose you're sorry for what you did." I joke, making Alita groan in annoyance at the pun. "Damn it, Jay! Enough with the lame jokes!" She growls, rolling her eyes in annoyance at the pun, while Chell and Katrina smile. Meanwhile, Dani is snickering at Alita's fuming expression, and Nesia ignores my pun, watching the show that's on right now with Lily. The Mareep is confused for a bit at the lame joke, before she gets it and giggles out loud. "That was darn terrible!" She snorts, making me grin in a goofy way.

Yup, all of us are just loafing around on the couch and enjoying a late-night show. Well, save for Nesia. I lent her the computer again after she wanted to know more about artificial birth. After the little fluffy spy was caught, I simply shrugged it off and went to watch some television with the team. Truth be told, I should be more bothered than this, but I'm a little too tired for anymore commotion that what I had stirred up today. As the laughter dies down from Cleo, she turns to look at me again. This time, however, she's got a look of awe on her face. "So, what Ah saw back there was true, wasn't it? You really can use magic?" She questions, like she didn't believe what her eyes had shown her. Making more of my blue magic appear around my hand, I lift her into the air by holding on to her Soul, covering her in the glowing blue stuff in the process. "Does this answer your question?" I raise an eyebrow as I ask her, gently setting her down as she nods dumbly. "Yeah. Sure does." She replies, while I nod and divert my attention back to the television. She quickly immerses herself into the show on television, while the team makes some casual conversation with each other.

However, as I see her sitting on the couch with the rest of us, I can't help but think of the negative effects of letting her know about what I can really do. That's all said and done, but what do I do with Cleo? I can't just up and get rid of her, but I can't really let her stay here, either. She might accidentally let it slip to another human by accident, and I might get tracked down by the government to experiment on. Or worse, I might end up getting tracked down by the very same organization that made in the first place. Who knows what'll happen to me and my sister then? I'll need to find a way to keep tabs on her, to make sure she won't reveal my secret. But how do I do that?

Just as I'm pondering about how I should resolve this situation, conversation between two of the Pokemon sitting on the couch next to me breaks my train of thought. Looking down, I see that Cleo has finally gotten Lily to open up to her, and the two are now managing to make conversation with one another. "So, uh, Lily, was it? Could ya tell me what travellin' with Jay is like?" Cleo asks the Petilil, looking at her expectantly. However, Lily simply shakes her head in reply. "Well, I haven't really been travelling with him for too long, so I can't really tell you what it's like. He has been really nice to me, though." She replies, getting Dani to nod as she joins in on the conversation. "Yeah! We haven't been with him for too long, but we already know that he's a really nice guy! He also likes to make jokes, like the one you heard earlier." She adds, making Alita groan as she catches on to what they're talking about.

"Ugh, his jokes are so dumb! If I had the chance I'd probably shut him up for good, with all the stupid jokes he spits out." She huffs, before she sees me looking at her with a grin. "I had no idea I ruffled your feathers that much, Ali." I joke, making her sigh as she slaps me over the head with her wing. However, once I raise my voice to speak up, Lily jumps up in surprise. That's strange… However, I decide to ignore that for the moment to capitalize on the joke train. "By the way, I am beak-ginning to feel sorry about the puns I make." I grin, making her groan once more. "No, you're not! See what I mean!? He's such an idiot!" She grumbles, before she looks away from me. "He is nice, though…" She mutters, making me sigh myself. Guess she isn't ever gonna change, huh? "Master cares about us. He also shares his things with us." Nesia speaks up from her computer searching, a soft smile on her features. "Yep. The food he makes tastes great, too." Chell adds, making me frown in a jokingly exaggerated manner. "Is that all I'm good for to you? A food dispenser?" I deadpan, making Chell giggle as I cross my arms and huff.

"He takes pranks well. Better than anyone I've stolen from before, at least." Katrina comments from her sitting position, her usual sly grin looking a little more devious than usual. I pat my pockets in response, feeling that a certain feline has taken my wallet. "Kat, give me my wallet back right now." I sigh, reaching for her tail. If her tail isn't out of my sight, like she used to do it, and there aren't any pillows on the couch, then there's only one place that this sneaky kitten could be hiding my things. I quickly grab her tail, making her gasp in surprise. "Jay, whatever are you doing?" She asks, making me deadpan her way. "I know where you hid my wallet, Kat. Give it here, or I'll take it from you." I warn her, to which she grins in light of my threat. "Would you rather have your wallet back, or would you rather have something to satisfy some… desires?" She says to me in a husky voice, making me roll my eyes as I lift her tail. "Stop avoiding the issue." I sigh, making her yelp when I lift her lower body by the tail, showing me her backside. I can faintly see her butt, along with a certain hole that I will not name right now.

"Nya!? Jay, you're so scandalous, forcing a girl to show you her most sacred areas…" She teases, making Cleo and the rest of the team, save for Chell and Nesia to blush three shades redder. "Pervert!" Alita shouts, making me roll my eyes. "Sir? What's a pervert?" Lily asks, making me sigh as I pat her head. "That's something I'll gladly explain to ya later, Lily." I tell her, putting off the subject for now. Upon the mention of this rather sexual issue, Chell looks at herself down there, before blushing herself. "Do you wanna see mine, Mister Jay?" She asks me timidly with a paw on her darker blue fur, her cute blush damn near stopping my heart. "No, I'm not a pervert and I do not want to see stuff like that. If I did I would have made a move a long time ago, Ali. I have magic, remember?" I sigh, returning to glaring daggers at the sneaky little feline, who's slightly wiggling her butt at me now. "Are you certain that you don't wish to have me, Jay?" She grins lustily, making me cough into my hand as I try to avoid getting a boner. Blushing just the slightest shade of red, I snatch my wallet from where Katrina was sitting on. Stuffing the leather holding device into my pocket, I quickly let go of her scythe like tail, letting her ass drop to the couch into her original sitting position. As I do so and refocus my attention onto the television, Katrina pouts. "Such a killjoy." She shakes her head, tutting at me as I sigh and rub her furry body with a hand. "And you're such a pain in the ass, Kat." I shoot back, making her giggle.

"Seriously though, Kat. Don't do that when we're near other people, or else some of 'em may get the wrong idea." I warn her, making Nesia raise an eyebrow in confusion. "But Katrina flirted with you. Humans do that in public too, don't they?" She asks, clicking on something and turning the computer around with her vines to show me a picture of two humans kissing. "Yeah, but it's against the law for people and Pokemon to love each other by any means. So if you did that in public, I would be arrested and you wouldn't be my Pokemon anymore. Personally, I don't mind if people are in a relationship with their Pokemon, but others don't see it the same way." I explain, making Alita groan as she looks at me disapprovingly. "Human rules are so dumb!" She sighs, making Dani raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"But you have magic, right? Couldn't you do something about it if the humans came for you?" She questions, making me sigh as I stuff my hands back into my pockets. "Ya see, humans are weak, but they have numbers on their side. Most wild Pokemon know that if you kill a single human, the entire world comes after ya. Also, they've built no shortage of weaponry to combat threats. Guns, explosives, you name it. Also, they can nullify magic with their machines, making Pokemon moves as well as my own magic unusable. I would fight them off, but I don't want to put anyone I care about in danger. My sister, my friends, and you girls are all way too important to me, and I don't wanna lose any of you." I simply leave it at that, Chell smiling warmly at me as she sits down in my lap. "I care about you too, Mister Jay." She whispers to me, making me grin. "Yeah, kiddo. I know ya do." I chuckle, running a hand through her light blue fur and making her sigh in bliss. The rest of the team seems much happier once I had said that, all of them in a more positive mood now.

Nesia, now seemingly jealous of the attention I'm giving away, uses her vines to position herself on my shoulder. Once in place, she nuzzles my neck gently, sending a cool feeling through my neck. "I care about Master too." She huffs, her calm face unchanging as she hugs me with her little arms. "Yes, Ness. I know you do too." I sigh, patting her with my other free hand. "Hey! I was using that hand!" Alita yells from the side, making me grin. "Sorry, but I don't have any more hands on me. Maybe later, after I get some hands-on experience." I joke, making her groan as she registers the terrible joke. "Why do you always have to ruin the mood with a joke!?" She shouts, making Dani snicker as the Tranquill rages on. Lily giggles, finding Alita's low tolerance for jokes funny as well.

"So, Cleo. Why are you asking about travelling with me?" I turn to the small Electric Sheep Pokemon, curious as to why she would ask something like that. "It's just that Ah wanna see the outside world. I've been here for a couple a' years since Ah was born, and the farm is already starting to seem a little... well…" She stops, unable to find the right word to express how she feels. I guess she is kinda young, so that's understandable. "Stale and boring?" I suggest, making her nod in agreement to what I had said. "Yeah, that. So, Ah really wanna go outside an' see more of the world for mahself. My parents keep tellin' me not to dream so big an' enjoy the simple farm life, but Ah'm not enjoyin' it. An' Ah know that Joey's tryin' to be a Trainer, but Ah wanna get goin' now, darn it!" She sighs, making me nod.

I know exactly how she feels, after all. As a test subject, and a highly prized one at that, I quickly got bored of the labs, the routine tests of magical prowess, and the annoyingly perfect timing of everything. Hell, the only things that made my life there bearable were Dad's jokes and my sister's company. If not for them, I would have gone batshit crazy a long time ago. Now, seeing Cleo in the same situation I once had to deal with really makes me sympathize with how she feels. I could try and do something about it, but what can I do? I'm just a budding Pokemon Trainer…

Wait a second. I'm a Pokemon Trainer, god damn it! I could just bring her along for the ride. It wouldn't be that hard to look after another member as it is, and I could also keep tabs on her as I travel. She wouldn't be able to tell anyone that she didn't know, and I'd be able to help her see more of the world outside. It's pretty much a win-win situation! "Hey, Cleo. Here's an idea. Why don't you tag along with us? I could help you to see more of the outside world, and you could make travelling more fun." I suggest to the Mareep, getting her to look at me hopefully. "Ya mean it?" She asks, to which I nod. "Yeah, really. Besides, I can't leave you alone after you saw my terrible secret, can I? You might tell on me, and then I'll be in big trouble." I grin, making her giggle as I exaggerate the length of the word 'big'.

"Sure thing, Jay. Ah'll tag along for the ride." She nods, immediately taking her chances with this one. "Okay, but are you prepared for the training that comes with travelling? I have a goal of my own that I'd like to see through, and I'd be grateful if you helped me with that." I tell her, to which she nods to affirm her support. "Ah'd be glad ta help ya finish yer goal, Jay." She replies, getting me to ruffle her little blue head. As I do so, she nuzzles my hand in return, letting out a small bleat of joy. "Then welcome aboard, Cleo. I hope you find our company enjoyable." I chuckle, making Alita roll her eyes. "With your jokes? Not likely." She comments, making me grin. "Aw, come on Ali. Wool-d you give my puns a chance? I'd be quite ec-static if you did." I joke, making her groan. "Ugh! This is exactly what I'm talking about, you idiot!" She sighs, making me laugh as she fumes at my lame sense of humor. "Golly, that was bad!" Cleo giggles, making Dani snicker along with the two of us. Lily seems to be a little lost in thought, however.

"Ali, your face looks so priceless. No wonder Jay loves teasing you so often." The Cottonee grins, while Nesia simply rolls her eyes. "Good one, Mister Jay!" Chell giggles, to which Katrina simply observes with a smile of her own. "All jokin' aside, what is your goal, anyhow?" Cleo asks me, getting the attention of Dani and Lily as well. "Yeah. What are you doing wandering around, anyway?" Dani adds, to which Lily nods. "I would like to know too, Sir." She speaks up, getting me to pick up the remote and flip to my favorite Pokemon Battling channel. "Well, I'd rather show you than tell you. Take a look." I tell them, pointing at the television screen. The channel is currently airing a recorded battle between the Champion of Unova, and the runner-up of last year.

"What's this?" Nesia asks, making me point to the fiery-haired champion. "That's Alder, the current Unova Champion. When it comes to pure fighting prowess and power here, he's the best there is. He currently about to fight the winner of last year's Pokemon League Cup for the title of Regional Champion. If Alder loses, he's gonna have to step down and let the other guy take over." I explain, seeing both sides reaching for their Pokeballs. As they do so, the announcer proceeds to fill us in on how the match is going for both sides. "This is it, folks! Both the challenger and Alder are down to their last Pokemon! The challenger still has the harsh sunlight on his side due to the use of his Ampharos, and Alder's other Pokemon have given and taken quite the beating! Tensions are high, and both sides are looking extremely even in terms of power and skill! What will they do!?" He announces, already getting the team absorbed into the tension of the fight. The battlefield is riddled with holes and craters, and to top it all off the sunlight is burning up the scorched earth of the arena.

"Woah! That's what they were fighting on!?" Alita gawks, looking at what remains of the field with shock and awe. "Yep. Also, consider that there were lots of rocks and boulders littering that flat arena when the match started." I add, making Alita and Dani look at me in disbelief. If they had lower jaws, they would be on the ground right now. "Such astonishing destructive power…" Katrina is in shock, also stunned by the sheer devastation of the field before her eyes. Nesia and Chell look on in interest, while Lily and Cleo are simply stunned into silence, opting to watch how the fight plays out. Yup, they're already really into the whole fighting thing.

As I gauge their reactions, I see the challenger on screen raising his arm to throw out a Pokeball. "The challenger is revealing his last Pokemon! What will it be!?" The announcer shouts as the challenger smirks, throwing out the capsule. The Pokeball bursts open, revealing his Roserade in a flash of white light. "And the challenger sends out his Roserade! A powerful yet squishy ranged attacker, and quite the powerful force to be reckoned with should it get off a direct Solar Beam! The sunlight just makes things easier for this Grass Type, as the strong rays cut the charge time of the move in half!" The announcer states and gets me to nod, some of the team looking at the screen in confusion.

"I don't get this." Dani drones, giving up her attempt to make sense of what the announcer guy said. "What's going on, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, getting me to speak up as I get into the analysis. "Well, that Roserade is squishy because it can't take too heavy of a hit, and it's Solar Beam charges for less time when there's more sunlight. Sunny Day was used by the challenger's Ampharos, which made the weather really sunny." I explain, getting her to nod in understanding. Alita, on the other hand, rolls her eyes in response to my simplified explanation. Having watched the same match ups five times before also helps. "He should have said that then!" She groans, making Nesia look at her strangely. "I got it just fine." She tells Alita, who shakes her head at the Grass Snake. "That's because you know more words than I do! I don't know that many, so I don't really get all that much, okay?" She tries to defend herself as she looks away in embarrassment, making me sigh as I pat her head. "It's fine. I didn't know words that big until I was thirteen years into my own life. And Pokemon have higher average lives than humans, so you'll have lots of time to learn." I comfort her, to which she smirks as she looks back at Nesia. "See? I can learn complicated stuff eventually!" She crows in triumph, making me sweat drop. That isn't something to be proud of, Alita…

"Use Solar Beam, Roserade!" The challenger on screen commands, the Roserade not needing much time to charge up an energy beam of light and fire it at Alder's Bouffalant that he had called forth. The speed and intensity of the beam is surprising, with the dust on the ground around Roserade being blown away by the force. "And the challenger initiates with a powerful Solar Beam Making use of that sunlight to quickly charge and fire the move is a clever strategy, indeed!" The announcer speaks up, the beam quickly heading towards Bouffalant. "Dodge, and use Giga Impact!" Alder quickly orders, getting the large bull to quickly shift out of the way of the beam at an incredible speed. The Bouffalant then turns its dodge into a counter strike, charging up a purple and white energy around itself and charging at the relatively frail Grass Type. "What an incredible shift into a counter attack! Giga Impact is a strong Normal Type move, which will do incredible damage to Roserade if it connects!" The announcer shouts, seeing the large bull charge headlong at the Grass Type. The speed of the large bull is extraordinary, the sudden charge completely unexpected. Normally, these bulls snort and paw at the ground before charging as a sign of power and to show off. To make a proud creature like that forgo its own pride for you in battle is nothing short of jaw dropping. Well, that's the champion for ya. Never ceases to amaze me, even though I've already seen this fight before.

However, the challenger senses this threat, and didn't come unprepared for this sudden maneuver. "Weather Ball!" He shouts, Roserade quickly able to charge up and throw a fiery ball at the opposing Bull Pokemon, temporarily blinding it and causing it to miss its intended target. The Roserade remains unharmed, its smile unchanging as it stares down its oxen foe. However, the Bouffalant proves to be quite the tanking force, as it shrugs off the Fire Type move without much difficulty and resumes its glaring at the Roserade. "Don't think it's over yet! My partner isn't going to fall that easily!" Alder grins widely, Bouffalant pawing at the ground and snorting at the Pokemon who dares to oppose it. The challenger simply smirks, as if welcoming the challenge. "Alright, if that's how it's gonna be. Roserade, use Poison Jab!" He orders, pointing at the bull's legs. Heh, I know where this is going. However, as the Roserade closes in, I can see that expectant look of confidence on Alder's face. The Grass Type is closing in fast, and it's almost within striking range. Poison Jab does lots of damage, and also has a good chance to poison the target. Combined with the attack bonus it gets for being the same Type with the move it's using, this isn't gonna be a hit that even a tank like Bouffalant wants to take.

"You shouldn't have done that. Bouffalant, Mega Horn!" Alder suddenly yells, the large afro-clad bull letting a sickly green glow coat its horns in a flash and smashing those horns into the Roserade. The force of the physical move is already quite strong when combined with Bouffalant's Attack, and since that the move's Typing is effective against Grass Types, the Roserade is bound to take some massive damage. And take the hit the Grass Type does, the resulting force from the blow sending it flying back quite a ways off from its original standing position. "Roserade, no!" The challenger shouts, seeing his last Pokemon being tossed around like a rag doll. "And Roserade's Poison Jab is denied by a decisive Mega Horn from Alder's Bouffalant! That Bug Type move sure hit hard, but will Roserade be able to stand?" The announcer shouts, all eyes currently on the downed Grass Type. The Roserade struggles to stand, but manages to push itself to its feet regardless. "Roserade, you alright!?" The challenger calls out to his Pokemon, who shakily turns to nod at its Trainer. Nodding, the Trainer doesn't waste any time in using his next move. "Roserade, use Synthesis!" He commands, the Grass Type quickly using the last vestiges of the Sunny Day to heal itself. Since Sunny Day is still in effect, the Grass Type quickly is able to heal a large amount of damage from that Mega Horn.

However, Alder isn't about to let a good opportunity like that go to waste. "Healing up, huh? Nice move, but I'm not just going to stand around and let that happen. Use Swords Dance, Bouffalant!" Alder commands, getting the challenger to watch in horror as Bouffalant quickly rears up and stomps the ground with both of its front hooves, making its Attack stat rise twice. "Both sides are readying their Pokemon for the battle ahead! Roserade is healing up the damage that it took from Bouffalant's Mega Horn, while Alder chooses to increase Bouffalant's Attack stat instead!" The announcer commentates, seeing both sides preparing for the final stretch of the fight. "Now, Bouffalant! Use Giga Impact again!" Alder commands, his Bouffalant quickly rushing at the Roserade again, its body once again encased in a purple and white energy.

"Not gonna happen. Roserade, Solar Beam!" The challenger shouts, Roserade charging up another large beam of solar energy. However, what the challenger had forgotten was that Sunny Day didn't last forever. As soon as Roserade got ready to charge up, the harsh sunlight vanished. As Roserade staggers a bit due to the sudden loss of the extra sunlight affecting the charge time of its Solar Beam, the challenger looks on in shock. "Damn it, not now!" He grits his teeth in frustration as Alder smirks. "You should have been paying attention, kid. Now, to end this!" Alder commands, the Bouffalant smashing head first into the Grass Type. The direct hit sends the Grass Type slamming into the wall of the arena, sending it out of bounds. Not that it would have mattered, anyway. The Roserade soon falls out of the newly formed indent in the wall, unceremoniously hitting the floor with those telltale swirls in its eyes.

"And Bouffalant's Giga Impact finishes off Roserade! Alder wins the match!" The announcer comments, the crowd going wild as Alder claims another victory as the Champion of Unova. However, Alder ignores the cheering crowd, instead opting to help the kneeling Trainer who's taking a look at his Roserade. "Is your Pokemon okay?" He asks, a bit of his genuine care seeping through his poker face. "Yeah, she'll be fine." He nods, as Alder helps him to his feet. "Well fought, friend. Let us fight again someday, eh?" He grins, making the challenger grin as well. "You bet!" He chuckles, the two shaking on it as the crowd roars. "And a final show of great sportsmanship ends this year's Pokemon League Championship, folks! We'll see you next year!" The announcer ends off the recording with one last cheer, leaving me and the team with the after show news report.

No one decides to speak for a bit, until Alita finally gets her voice back. "That. Was. Amazing!" She shouts, making me wince at the sudden outburst. "That fight was nothing short of incredible." Katrina agrees as Nesia nods, her eyes now showing her inherent excitement. "That's how the champion fights? Challenge accepted." The Servine adds, her eyes shining with determination. "That was so cool, Mister Jay!" Chell yells, already more pumped from the fight she had seen. "I know, kiddo. That's why I wanted to show ya." I reply, grinning in excitement. God, it's fights like these that get me so excited.

"Now that was sum serious power!" Cleo nods, having had enjoyed the fight she had seen. "Yup, that's my goal right there. If I beat the champion, I'll be able to convince more people that Pokemon aren't just tools for battle." I speak up, making Cleo look at me with a newfound sense of admiration. "That's one hell of a choice to make, Jay." Dani comments, before she grins. "I'm in." She nods. "I can't do much, but I'll try my best, Sir!" Lily adds, making me grin as I ruffle their heads. "That's all I wanted to hear. Now, let's hit the hay, yeah? I'm tired as heck, and I need my nap." I yawn, the team letting out replies of confirmation as we prepare to sleep.

(Meanwhile, at the edge of the forest…)

"Hey, Boss? I think I've found something of interest." A man voices his findings over a radio, having just seen the flashes of blue magic from the zoom of his binoculars. "What is it this time?" The voice on the other end sighs, a slight tone of impatience in his voice. "Remember that little pet project that got away a while back? Well, I think I've found it. From what I can recall, blue magic isn't something normal humans use." He smirks, the voice on the other end chuckling darkly. "I see. Return to HQ, and we'll see to it that we get our means of world domination back."


	48. Chapter 48 (Liepard)

[Jay]

As the team get on with some last minute business before bed, I decide to head out for a bit. As such, I tap Chell on the head to inform her of my temporary leave. "Hey, Chell. I'm gonna head outside. Keep the team outta trouble while I'm gone, eh?" I tell her, getting a nod in response. "You got it, Mister Jay." She smiles, making me ruffle her head before I head out the door. However, in my rush to leave, I fail to notice a certain feline slinking her way out the door with me.

Once outside the house, I decide to head next to the lake behind the trees that outline Pinwheel Forest. I take a seat on a fallen log, mindful of any bugs that might have crawled on me. "Gah!" Stupid ants, scaring the shit outta me like that... Sighing, I pick up a rock and toss it out to the lake, seeing it splash into the water and making ripples. Katrina's bold move earlier really did get me aroused, strangely enough. Why the hell did I get turned on by a Pokemon, of all things!? The thing is, I didn't dislike it. Quite the contrary, in fact. I might just as well say that I enjoyed that little display. I sigh as I sit down on the grass, trying to wrap my head around my interest in my own team member. Was Katrina messing around, or does she really like me? God damn it, I'm so confused right now.

"Might I ask what you're up to this late at night?" I turn to the source of the prim, properly uttered sentence and see none other than the team's sleek, fast feline. She's also decided to laze around next to the lake, for some reason. Speak of the devil… "Oh, hey there Kat." I wave, before I plop my hand back down onto the grass and sigh. "I'm just a bit…stressed out, is all." I tell her, for lack of a better word. I turn away from the Liepard for now, not really wanting to have a conversation as I stare at the night sky. However, by doing so, I just barely miss that thinking face she's making. She quickly makes up her mind about it, though, as she quickly slinks on over to me and rests her front paws and her head in my lap. This isn't her usual lax self, however, as she starts to nuzzle my chest.

The others are getting ready for bed at this time. As such, I am left alone with the sly feline as she nuzzles me affectionately. Shrugging and deciding to play along, I gently and cautiously run my hand along her smooth back and head. This goes on for a while, me petting her as she purrs happily, now leaning on her side as she exposes her underbelly for my hands to touch. And touch it I do, as I run my palm along her stomach and ribcage, causing her to sigh and purr in satisfaction as I continue my ministrations. "Mm…Have I ever informed you about how heavenly your hands feel, Jay?" She sighs happily as I rub both hands along the contours of her torso, lovingly giving attention to her belly and her back.

"I think you have, Kat. More than once." I chuckle as I keep giving her a relaxing petting session, as she likes to call them. Apparently, this is quite relaxing for her. It's also quite strange, to say the least. She's pretty much acting like a house cat, albeit an overgrown one, nuzzling me with no shortage of affection as I pet her. This is…honestly really relaxing. As to provide commentary for my thoughts, Katrina suddenly speaks up during the session. "This is relaxing for you too, is it not?" She asks, smiling at me in her usual lazy manner. "Actually, yeah." I nod, seeing her nuzzle me back after I do. "I figured I could help you relive some stress. You do seem to have been under some rather significant stress as of late." She tells me as I stop petting her, allowing me to fully feel the stress relieving properties of dealing with cat affection as I take a deep breath. "Thanks, Kat. I feel pretty good right now." I thank her, feeling pretty relaxed from the nice feeling of fur against my skin and the soft purring.

 **(Lemon starts here! All kiddos avert your eyes!)**

This seems to trigger something in her, as she gets off my lap and taps my neck with her tail, getting me to look her in the eyes. "Hmm? What is it?" I ask, causing her to prop herself up to my level with her front paws on her shoulders in order to lick me. Not on the cheek, though. She licks me on the lips, like an indirect kiss of sorts. Her tongue constantly tries to gain access to my mouth, prodding at my lips. As she pulls away, I can see her blushing pretty hard, her breathing getting heavy as she stares at me. This isn't her usual lax look, however. In her half lidded eyes I can see a strong desire, a need for something that only I can offer. She's giving me a look of lust as she leans in again to tell me something that only confirms her actions. "I can think of another method to help the both of us relieve stress, Master~" She smirks, moving her snout in closer for another lip licking. Holy crap, so she does actually love me! The heck do I do now!? Shit, she's closing in on me! I should reject her advance! This isn't right! This… Ah, fuck it. I don't give a damn about the law anyway.

My mind made up, I respond to her this time, grabbing her by the back of her head and pushing my lips against hers. "Mmm!?" She lets out a muffled yelp as our lips connect, but she soon surrenders control to me, allowing my tongue access to the inside of her mouth and becoming completely submissive to me as my tongue wraps around hers. Welp, that escalated really quickly.

Panting as we soon part ways due to the need to breathe, I smile as I look her in the eyes. "And that my dear, is the human way of kissing someone you love." As we both catch our breath due to our newly discovered love for each other, I decide to ask her a question. "So, how long have you felt this way?" Upon hearing the question, she tackles me onto the ground, causing me to land on my back as I prop myself up with my arms. "For quite a while, if I am to be honest with you. Your deep level of care for us makes it diffcult for me not to become attached to you." She giggles. "But after catching wind of your late night activities while we were camping, I finally gathered the courage to ask this of you." She replies, getting off my chest as she lowers her attention towards my pants. So she heard the… strenuous exercise that I had been doing for the past few nights outside. That's embarrassing as hell. Hey, don't judge me. A guy needs his stress relief too, ya know.

After getting on the grass and locating the zipper, she uses her teeth to grab on to it and pull it down, revealing my fully erect, throbbing member to her eager eyes. "Getting aroused simply from kissing your Pokemon, Master? You are quite the pervert…" She grins. "What can I say? The Pokemon I'm kissing is really sexy, in my personal opinion." I smile back, causing her to blush harder as she giggles once more.

"Stop it, Master. You and your soldier here are causing me to be quite embarrassed…" She trails off, licking my member with her rough tongue as she runs her slimy appendage up and down my hard-on, getting it wet and slippery with her saliva as her tongue's rough texture only serves to provide copious amounts of pleasure for my penis. The pleasure skyrockets once she licks around the glans and the head of my dick, causing me to groan and grunt as my cock pulses, releasing a drop of precum for her dexterous tongue to lap up. She purrs in delight as she withdraws her tongue into her mouth, tasting the erotic liquid. However, she quickly stops her licking of my cock once it is completely slick with her saliva, causing me to look up in disappointment as I feel the addictive, spine tingling pleasure come to a halt.

"Aw, come on Kat. Why'd you sto-" My sentence is cut off halfway, ending in a strangled gasp as she places her paws around the sides of my cock and starts to stroke it. Her paw pads provide an even rougher texture when compared to her tongue, which relentlessly assault my penis with jolts of pleasure, causing my breathing to grow heavy. Each and every stroke of those paws brings me closer and closer to release, and Katrina knows it. She's stroking even faster now, her tongue occasionally reaching down and lapping up the precum seeping from my urethra. "God damn…" Is all I can utter out between grunts and groans as she wraps her mouth around the engorged head of my cock, suckling it like a child would a teat. The suction applied to the head of my penis, along with her tongue repeatedly teasing the slit of my penis by licking over and around it all adds up to an explosive amount of pleasure.

Her stroking combined with her suckling is causing more saliva to seep from the corners of her mouth, only to be swept along and used as more lubricant for the lewd service she's providing me as her paws quickly use the saliva dribbling from her mouth to continue lubricating her paws that are stroking my cock. Her ministrations are making a rather erotic, slimy sound that is very apparent to me as she continues to make a show out of servicing my dick, occasionally releasing my tool from her mouth with an audible pop and licking it all over like a delicious, adult-only lollipop. "Are you enjoying this, Master?" She slowly accentuates every word for me to hear, before she runs her tongue along the length of my dick. "Am I being a good kitty?" She asks me sensually, before returning to her licking of my cock. Her lewd licking is only proving to turn me on even further, as she makes tiny little licking sounds that are all too deliberate for me to pick up on. I'm literally stunned by the level of skill and technique she's delivering to my member, as I can only weakly utter a yes in reply to both of her questions. As if that wasn't all good enough for me to enjoy, she suddenly takes half my length into her warm maw. The sudden intrusion of my cock is enough for me to let out a moan as her throat feels nice and tight, the warm feeling quickly engulfing my senses.

As soon as I feel myself entering her warm oral cavern, she starts to quickly move her head up and down the half of my member that slipped in, sliding it in and out at a rapid pace as she continues using her tongue to stroke the throbbing, erotic meat in her maw and using her paws to stroke the half that hasn't been consumed by her mouth. However, it's what she does next that causes me to lose it. Once she takes the full half of my dick into her mouth and letting the tip touch the back of her throat, she then starts to purr as she sucks me off. The vibrations on the head of my dick only serve to send even more pleasure surging through my cock to my brain, causing me to immediately lose my grasp on my oncoming orgasm as I let the dam burst.

"Shit, Kat! I'm gonna-" I don't even get to finish my sentence as my dick pulses erratically, sending its first blast of warm, sticky semen down her awaiting throat. Hearing her swallow my first shot with an audible gulp, she quickly moves my cock out of her throat so that the tip is in her mouth. She suckles on the tip gently as I cum, each and every shot sent into the warmth that is her oral cavern. Her paws don't stop stroking my member as I ejaculate, as she draws out every last drop of salty, musky sperm from my slowly softening tool. As the last spurt finds its way into her maw, her mouth lets go of my now half erect member as I sit there, basking in the afterglow of an orgasm as I try and recover my senses. Looking back down at Katrina, I see her open her mouth to show me the mess that I made inside. "Master's special milk…It's so tasty…" She moans with her mouth open and using her tongue to swirl the sticky, salty cum around in her mouth to savor the taste, before she closes it to swallow each and every bit of it in small, audible gulps. The way she keeps calling me Master though…does she like being submissive? There's only one way to find out. "Now, show me that you swallowed your Master's milk like a good little kitty." I tell her, catching her off guard before she opens her mouth to show me that she did indeed swallow it all. Looks like I've found a nice little kink that I can use when she wants it from me…

"That's a good girl. Now, as a reward for your obedience…" I grin wolfishly, flipping her lithe frame onto the grass and pinning her underneath me with my arms so that her belly is exposed for me to see. On her lower abdomen, I can see eight nipples, already erect and a bright pink in color. I can also see her pussy, swollen and sopping wet with need as it throbs. I start off by nibbling on her ear to asset dominance over her, to show her who's in charge for tonight. She moans softly as I tease her, moving down to her neck and sucking on it, leaving a freshly red mark on it as I leave soft kisses along her underbelly, moving in closer to see her perky nipples. Taking one in each hand and putting my mouth over the third one, I start to go to work on the sensitive nubs of flesh, biting and nipping at the one in my mouth while I pinch and pull hard on the ones in the grasp of my fingers. "Myah, Master!" She moans loudly as she feels every tweak, pinch and bite that I'm lavishing her nipples with. "Nyaahn! You're being so forceful, Master!" She cries out in bliss, seemingly enjoying the fact that she's being dominated by the one she desires. I think I'm getting better at foreplay, maybe? She's not showing any negative reaction to this, so I'd assume so. This is also quite the turn on for me as well, as I had never really experienced the dominant side of sex before. I actually quite like it.

Removing my mouth from her nipple to look at her, I forcefully push my lips onto hers, forcing my tongue into her mouth as I roughly French kiss her. Her tongue doesn't fight back, surrendering to the dominating power of mine as she moans into my mouth, my slimy appendage wrapping around hers and putting her in her place. I don't let up on the squeezing of her nipples in my fingers, though, as the rough treatment of her mammaries causes her lips to detach from my own mouth with a moan. I decide that I've had my way with her teats for now, removing my domineering fingers from them as I move downwards to take a look at her pussy. Her juices are leaking from her cunt at a steady pace now, as the sweet smell of berries with a bit of cinnamon fills the air around us. I soon realize this to be the smell of her arousal, the smell almost intoxicating to me as I decide to continue playing out the Master and slave kink that she seems to enjoy so much.

"Getting so wet just from having your nipples teased? You're such a slutty kitty, Kat." I smirk putting two fingers on her sopping wet pussy lips and rubbing some of her juices onto them, showing the Liepard beneath me just how much of a slut she is by pulling the two digits apart and showing her the string of juices that connects my fingers. "Admit it. Admit to being a little kitten slut." I tease her, rubbing her leaking cunt as I do so. "Yes, Master! I'm a little kitten slut, nya!" She moans in reply, writhing in pleasure due to the treatment of her pussy, as well as the teasing that I'm getting in. She's pretty much forgone all manner of formal speech now, letting her personal kink play out as I continue to talk dirty to her. "Whose little slutty kitty are you?" I tease her again, seeing and feeling the flow of her juices increase even more as the smell of her arousal gets stronger. "Yours, Master! I'm your little slutty kitty!" She pants, submitting to her Master as she humps against my fingers, trying to get them to slip into her cunt. This little act is also really turning me on as well, my member quickly returning to its erect state again as she willingly degrades herself. "What does the little kitten slut want?" I ask her. "Her Master's dick!" She replies almost instantly, now really giving me a hard on as I see the normally calm and collected Katrina submitting herself to me. I then pull out my erect member, rubbing it on her drenched vaginal opening.

"And what does the slutty kitty want her Master to do to her?" I tease her even further, trying to get her to beg for it. "To mate with her!" She cries, trying desperately to get me to fuck her. "Not so fast, slut. You're going to have to beg for it. Go on, beg your Master for his dick. Do it, you slut!" I almost yell at her, really getting myself into the act this time around. "Breed me! Please Master, breed your slutty kitty with your dick! Breed me with your seed, myah! Please breed me Master, I beg of you!" She pleads as I rub her cunt, the pleasure and arousal really getting to her as she humps my dick at a fever pitch in an attempt to get herself to the point of no return.

Smirking, I decide to let her indulge in some pleasure for now. "That's a good kitten slut. As for your reward…" I give her a sly grin as I remove my hard cock and place my tongue on her slick, wet snatch and give it a lick. As she gives a breathy moan in response, I swirl the juices on my tongue around in my mouth. She tastes like berries, with a bit of sour aftertaste to it. Not bad, if I do say so myself. I then continue to lick her cunt, making sure to make my licking slow and deliberate as she writhes and moans in pleasure for each lick I give her pussy. Although I let her feel some pleasure for now, I don't let her cum just yet. As far as I'm concerned, I'm far from done messing with the little slut beneath me. I then decide to take the pleasure to the next level by wrapping my lips around her small cunt opening and giving it a good suck, causing her to really shiver and writhe in bliss as I apply suction to her sensitive, swollen pussy lips, giving them a few nips here and a couple bites there. After a few minutes of sucking, I decide to bring her even closer to the edge by shoving my tongue into her leaking love tunnel.

"Hah!" She moans, arching her back as she finally experiences penetration after so much relentless teasing from her Master. As I wriggle my tongue around in her folds, I can feel her walls starting to squeeze me erratically, which most likely means that she's pretty close to cumming. Smirking inwardly, I decide to let the torture continue as I stop penetrating her cunt and stop my ministration entirely, allowing her to come back from the brink before slipping my tongue into her pussy again, effectively bringing orgasm denial into play as I mess with her pussy. She quickly devolves from a begging slut to a moaning, panting mess as I play with her snatch, occasionally rubbing her clit between my fingers. This causes her pussy to leak even more of her juices, which I eagerly lap up with my tongue as she humps my mouth vigorously, her body now trying to experience release but being constantly denied by her Master.

After a few minutes of not letting her cum, I remove my mouth from her pussy, causing her to lie there, panting as she tries to come to terms with what was happening to her. "Does the little kitten slut want to cum?" I tease her, seeing her nod her head frantically in response. "Yes please, Master! I beg of you, please let me cum!" She begs desperately, causing me to smirk at her in response. "Since the slutty kitty asked so nicely…" I trail off, shoving my dick into her and breaking her hymen in one swift motion. I honestly didn't know she still had her hymen until I broke through. The initial pain stops her from cumming, even though I penetrate her fully. "Master, it hurts…" She cries, tears leaking from her eyes as she writhes in pain. I can't really move around in her, as she's squeezing my erect member so hard that it's threatening to pull it off my crotch. Aw, shit. I may have taken it a bit too far…

"Master, I'm sorry for not letting you move inside me. Please let me cum, please…" She cries softly, as I gently stroke her soft underside and caress her body. "It's okay, Kat. Master doesn't blame you for that. After all, losing your first time is really painful, isn't it?" I soothe, causing her to slowly loosen up around my dick. "Just hang in there. You're tougher than this Kat, I know you are." I gently whisper into her ear, causing her to be able to stop the waterworks as I calm her down enough to get her to fully relax around my member. To help her out, I pinch her nipple and play with her clit as I kiss her passionately, trying to get her to relax her inner walls. She slowly but surely loosens up, allowing me to see the slight trickles of blood that indicated the loss of her virginity.

As soon as she's fully relaxed, I start to move in and out of her pussy, causing her to moan loudly as the pleasure that had been built up before causes her to become rather sensitive to my thrusting. "Nyah…hnng…myah…" She moans, the pain now nonexistent as the pleasure takes over. I thrust in her nice and slow for a while, savoring the feeling of her warm, tight cunt clamped tightly around my cock. Her moaning is now somehow more like a cat's, as she makes noise that sound like a mix between a meow and a moan in between her panting and whimpering. "Nya…Master's penis is…ngh…finally inside me…It's so big…" Katrina moans lustfully, her hips already moving to thrust against me almost immediately. "You're so tight, kitty. You're also soaking wet down there. Did you really want Master to ravage you like the little slut you are?" I ask her, causing her to pant as she replies, her eyes getting hazy with desire. "Nya! Yes, Master! I love you, so please ravage me!" She moans, humping against me already as she surrenders to the feeling of pleasure coursing through her, her wall clamping down on my cock like a vice. Seeing no negative reaction from her, I start to add power to my thrusting, hitting her cervix with each slow, yet powerful thrust. This also causes her to become fully aroused again, causing her to moan my name. Well, not exactly my name, but close enough.

"Myaah! Master! I'm so close! Please, let me come!" She begs me, even though I didn't really ask her to this time. "Alright then, you slutty kitty. Cum! Cum for your Master!" I tell her, my words and my more powerful thrusting pushing her over the edge as she reaches her climax. "Thank you Master, I'm going to…to…nyah!" Katrina cries, squirting a small blast of juices out of her pussy and soaking my cock and pants. She moans loudly, arching her back as she shivers in orgasmic bliss. Her walls squeeze erratically around my cock, which causes more pleasure to assault my senses. The sensation of a cumming pussy around my dick is so intense that I almost lose it right then and there. I can't really move in her when she's squeezing me like this, because she's already tight enough when she's relaxed. If I try to move when she's like this, I might end up without a penis.

As soon as she stops squeezing, however, I resume the pace I was at, slamming into her hard as she moans once again for me to hear. "Nya! Master, stop! I'm still so sensitive after cumming!" She desperately begs me to stop, but her cries fall on deaf ears as I pick up the pace, increasing the speed of my thrusting. The squelching sound of my member sliding in and out of her cunt is now more apparent than ever, as her sensitive walls push her over the edge once again, causing more and more juices to lubricate her tight vaginal passage and allowing for my smooth and powerful thrusting into her sweet, warm cunny. She spasms quite roughly as she experiences orgasm once more, twitching madly for me to see and for my cock to feel. "Nyah…Master's cock…it made me cum again…" She moans, now completely lost in her desires. The wet smacking sound of flesh against flesh is also pretty apparent to hear now, our lewd act causing me to pound her sopping wet pussy with lightning speed, edging myself closer and closer towards release as she continues to write in the pleasure of rapid orgasms underneath me. Her releases are causing periodical spurts of juices to repeatedly coat my cock, only increasing the sounds of squelching that are heard during our act. My cock head is pounding against her cervix now, her moans only getting louder as she feels each and every thrust against the entrance to her womb. "Ah! Nya! Ah! Master! So good, Master! Nyah!" She moans and screams like a bitch in heat, her juices running out of her vagina and staining the grass below as she continues to orgasm. "Nyah! Master's penis is so deep inside me! Myah! Haahn!" She screams, drooling freely from her maw as I continue to stir up her insides with my eager cock.

In those few minutes, I am lost in the sea of pleasure and lust, my brain trying and failing to get myself to think rationally as all my energy goes into humping Katrina faster and faster. She begs and pleads for me to stop in between the mind blowing orgasms she's experiencing, but I'm not about to stop fucking her, as I haven't even blown my load yet. However, I don't ever want to stop making love to my feline lover, as she and I are locked in the throes of passion together, experiencing the pleasures of sex as she thrusts against me, and I thrust into her in tandem as we move together as one.

My sweat is starting to soak my clothes now, staining my attire in a darker color as I feel Katrina's fur starting to become slick and slippery due to the strenuous activity, her panting and moaning really loud as I move in and out of her at a rapid pace. "I…Myah!...I love Master's dick! Please don't stop Master, nyah! Please mate with me harder! Nyaah!" She screams out loud, her voice audible over the naughty squelching sounds that our thrusting is producing. It's probably due to the spur of the moment, but I can't help but find this submissive side of her rather cute. "You're so cute like this, Kat. You're such a cute little cock craving slut, aren't you?" I grunt as I thrust into her soaking snatch again and again, causing her to let loose no shortage of lewd moaning as she feels my rock-hard phallus stimulate her depths. "Nya! Yes, Master! I love Master's cock, nya! You're so deep inside me, Master!" She pants, her tongue hanging out of her maw as her walls squeeze me even harder. Seems like my dirty talk's really turning her on.

However, all good things must come to an end, and as I thrust myself into the slutty kitty below me, I can feel the telltale tightening of my balls as I inch closer and closer to release. "I'm gonna cum soon, Kat." I warn her, grunting as my thrusting doesn't let up. "Nyah! Cum inside! Cum inside me, Master! Fill me to the brim with your special milk! Make me yours!" Katrina moans lustily, her sentence now barely coherent as her tongue hangs out from her mouth, the multiple orgasms she's experiencing preventing her from thinking rationally as her focus is locked on satisfying herself and her master. "Alright then, you kitten slut! Take it! Take all of my cum inside your slutty pussy!" I grunt, thrusting into her a few more times before I hilt myself in her, forcing open the entrance to her womb as my achingly hard member finally releases its pent-up load into Katrina, the sheer amount of hot, sticky semen hopelessly flooding and over filling her honey pot as she arches her back and screams one last time, convulsing beneath me in bliss as she experiences one last mind blowing orgasm due to the sensation of my jizz hitting the back of her womb.

The amount of my semen pumping into her causes her womb to visibly inflate a little, trapped inside her by my cock and unable to come out, allowing me to see just how much love I was giving her. And god damn, I had lots of love to give. "Master's breeding me with his seed…There's so much…" I hear Katrina moan underneath me, proving to me that she was feeling all that I had to offer her as well. Her eyes roll into the back of her head with her tongue lolling out of her mouth, her body twitching madly in ecstasy as she rides out her orgasm.

We freeze right then and there, with me pumping spurt after spurt of semen into her awaiting pussy while she spurts out more love juices to coat my pants and my cock. As I finish the deed, some small trickles of excess cum flowing out of her vaginal passage, I pull out of her, allowing the rest of the excess semen to pour out of her and pool onto the ground below. She's seemingly reached her limit, so I give her a while to let her return to her senses. As we catch our breaths, I kiss Katrina once more as she comes to her senses. "So, was I adequate enough for ya?" I ask her, causing her to blush in response. "More than adequate, Master." She replies, causing me to chuckle. "Well, you were really tight." I tell her, as I pull her in for another raunchy French kiss. My tongue encircles hers passionately as we kiss, two lovers embracing each other in the afterglow of some great sex.

 **(Lemon's over, kiddos. You can look now.)**

As we part lips again, I decide to tell her something I should have told her before we started this. "I love you, Katrina." I sigh, causing her to giggle. "And I love you too, Jay." She tells me in response, leaning into me and allowing me to feel her fur while she shares my warmth. Welp, she's reverted back to calling me Jay again. "I still gotta question for ya, though. How did you know about using your mouth?" I ask Katrina, raising an eyebrow. I'm not a Pokemon researcher, but I'm definitely sure that Pokemon don't normally suck their partner's dick. "You can't stop me from borrowing your computer when you're asleep." She replies, giggling as I sigh in exasperation. Of course she did that…

That's when I decide to yawn. "Let's clean up and head to bed then, eh? I don't know about you, but I'd much rather we sleep in the house than on the grass. Because to be honest with ya, this place doesn't exactly smell the best right now." I state the obvious, now fully realizing the heavy stench of sweat and sex just emanating off of the area. As Katrina gives the air a sniff, her nose scrunches up as she nods in agreement. "I concur. Let us proceed to the house to get some rest." As we walk on over to the house, I raise an eyebrow as I open the door for the sneaky feline. "Ya know, I don't mind if you called me something other than Jay sometimes." I tell her, causing her to raise an eyebrow in mock confusion. "Then what should I call you, Master?" She grins, causing me to grin back at her. "You already know what you should call me, kitty." I smirk, while she blushes in embarrassment. By some miracle, the team doesn't notice the trickle of cum leaking from Katrina's pussy, nor do they see the sweaty and cum stained clothes on my body in the dim night lighting. I simply decide to take one more shower before bed, in order to lower suspicions. Katrina complies, and she even opts to sleep with me on the couch. The rest of the team decides to sleep in the AVR, since the couch had already been occupied.

Normally Katrina steals stuff of material value just for the fun of it, but this time she's stolen something of immense sentimental value from me instead. Is this bad for me? Yes. Do I mind, even a little? Nah.

 **Author's note: This is probably what you're thinking right now. "Finally, Roccer did a fucking lemon chapter! He actually held up on his end of the deal!" I had the idea of making lemons for this story in mind, but I somehow ended up postponing it until last week. Sorry for the hold up, kiddos. I had school work to be done, and I did have intentions to progress the story further. I guess I was so wrapped up in plot, that I forgot the actual points of the story that I was writing. Sorry for the wait, and I'm glad you stuck around for the sex, even though this is the first one I've ever written. Well, second one, but who gives a damn? I finally did the lemons! Fear not, for this isn't the only lemon on the tree. Jay's harem will grow for many chapters to cum. (haha lol pun) Oh, and before I forget. Thanks to Kurogano Yokaze for his suggestion of the TBA! Check out his profile too, yeah? He does a great job, and he needs some appreciation!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Roccer**


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49

[Jay]

The first vestiges of sunlight wake me from my slumber today, getting me to wince as I use my hand to try and block the accursed solar rays coming from the window. "Ugh, stupid sun waking me up…" I grunt in annoyance, before I realize two things. Surprisingly, I didn't wake up from a bad dream this time. Also, there's a certain feline resting on top of my chest, her soft breaths tickling my neck slightly. She's lying on her side, her ear pointing upwards. Seeing her reminds me of last night's activities and getting to know her on a more intimate level, and I smile as I scratch her behind her ears. This gets her to wake up, her ears twitching to life as she opens her eyes to see me.

"Heya, Kat. Sleep well last night?" I ask her, getting her to smile as well. "Yes I did, Jay." She giggles, licking my cheek. In response to her affection, I kiss her on the lips. "Heh, that's good to hear. Ya feeling okay down there? Is it sore?" I tease the Liepard, getting her to blush as she lightly paws at my face. "Enough of that, Jay. Let us prepare for our departure today, shall we?" She suggests, trying to change the subject before looking away in embarrassment. "It does feel a little chafed…" She mutters to me, making me chuckle. "Eh, it'll be fine. Just don't ask me for more intimacy for the next few days." I reply, deciding to stop teasing her about it for now. However, the thought of hiding our little act from the others kind of leaves a feeling of unease in my system. What if they feel the same way that Katrina did? How will I deal with them then? I can already feel that the situation between Katrina and I are already past that of partners, but will she be fine if the others are attracted to me as well? However, I decide to cast such thoughts aside for now.

"Alright, then. I'll let the rest of the team out of the AVR, and then we can get ready for our trip into the forest." I tell her, aiming the materialization process at the floor in front of me. The TBA gauntlet then proceeds to materialize the rest of the team onto the floor of the house, while Katrina slinks off into the bathroom, most likely to wash up. She's pretty smart, so she'll probably figure out how the tap works. As such, I am the first to receive a hug from Chell as she jumps into my embrace. "Good morning, Mister Jay." She smiles, making me grin as well. "Good morning to you too, kiddo. Sleep well?" I ask, getting her to nod in response. Nesia also nods curtly in my direction. "Good morning, Master." She speaks up, to which I chuckle and pat her scaly head with a hand. She seems to be content with her first dose of head pats, judging by her smile and her soft sigh of bliss.

"Good morning, Sir!" Lily calls out to me, her small leaves atop her head now looking much cleaner. Smiling at her, I pat her head as well. "Good morning to you too, Lily. You slept well, I assume?" I chuckle, to which she nods. "I did, but Dani snores so loudly…" She sighs, Dani blushing in embarrassment as she huffs. "No, I don't!" She tries to defend herself, before I ruffle up her cotton. "It's no big deal if ya do. As long as ya get rest, it's all good." I reassure her, Alita already flying off towards the bathroom to get herself cleaned up. "Mornin' Jay!" Cleo is quick to greet me, getting me to pat her blue head. "Morning, Cleo. Now, I'm gonna go get cleaned up. I'm still tired, and I feel the need to wash up." I tell her, making haste towards the bathroom to get my face cleaned. The rest of the team follow closely behind, needing some early morning refreshment themselves.

Stepping inside the bathroom, I look around the place and quickly find the sink. Quickly splashing some water onto my face, I feel the cool liquid stinging my pores and bringing my tired senses to life. Katrina had been using the water to wipe off the specks of dust on her own face, and Alita was currently in the process of ruffling her feathers around to dry them. "Now, for some tooth care." I mutter, picking up the toothbrush and applying a speck of toothpaste on it. Brushing my teeth, I see that the rest of the team has reached the water in the sink, using the running liquid to wipe away at their faces. In Nesia's case, she simply uses a cup to dump some water on herself, needing to keep her scales dirt free for photosynthesis. "Could you help me, Nesia? I can't hold the cup on my own…" Lily calls out to the Servine, who nods as she splashes a cup of water onto her. Lily is soaking wet, but I grab a towel and wipe her dry, having finished brushing my teeth.

She giggles as I rub her all over with the towel, and I make sure that she's dry enough to leave the floor underneath her dry as well. "Thank you, Sir!" She smiles gratefully at me, to which I grin back. "You're welcome, ya little cutie." I reply, messing up her leafy head gently. However, I'm suddenly alerted to the presence of a certain Mareep's tail poking my leg. I can tell it's her because of the subtle static charge that transfers to me when she poked me. "Yeah, Cleo? What do ya need?" I ask her, to which she points to the sink. "Ah kinda want some water. Mah face feels a mite grimy and Ah can't reach the sink…" She answers me, getting me to look her face over as I soak a spare hand towel in water. "Alright, then. Close your eyes, hold still and let me get that for ya." I tell her, using the towel to slowly wipe away at her face. I quickly see the bit that I'm using to wipe her face is getting a bit stained, so I move on to another bit of her face, while using clean bits of the wet towel.

"Ah, this feels mighty good." Cleo sighs blissfully as I wipe away all the dirt plaguing her face, making me raise an eyebrow. "Geez, you're dirty. Didn't you get cleaned up yesterday?" I ask her while I move on to the lower side of her face, allowing me to see her sheepish grin. "Well, I kinda didn't get mah cleanin' last night. Ah was curious about what you were up ta, so Ah decided to sneak outta the barn…" She laughs nervously, making me sigh. "Well, you should've at least told Joey's Grandpa. He's probably worried about you." I add, finishing up my wiping of her face. "I'm done. Want me to clean your ears for ya?" I ask her, holding up a cotton swab in my hand. "Sounds good ta me. Ah'm probably all dirty there, too." Nodding, the Mareep lets me lift up her ear slightly, which grants me access to her inner ear.

"Alright, I'm going in. Let me know if this tickles or hurts, okay?" I warn her, reaching into her ear with the cotton swab and moving it around the inside wall of her ear. Immediately, Cleo shivers from the contact of the swab in her more sensitive area, but she quickly giggles from the ticklish sensation. "Jay, it tickles!" She snorts, laughing as I gently scrape away the earwax and grime that's littering the Mareep's inner ear. "Hold still, Cleo. I might hurt ya if you move around too much." I chuckle, Cleo trying her best to not shiver and laugh as I continue to clean her ears. "Ah'm tryin', but it tickles so bad!" She giggles uncontrollably, now a little red in the face.

As I finish up, I get rid of the cotton swab, leaving Cleo a tired, panting mess. "Whew, that was one heck of an ordeal…" She pants, making me look at her in confusion. "Didn't know that an ear cleaning would be so ticklish for ya." I chuckle, patting her head as she lies on the ground to catch her breath. "Well, it kinda felt good after it was ticklish…" Cleo admits. However, that reminds me that two of the team that also have ears my also need to get them cleaned out. "Hey Kat, Chell. Get over here, you two. I need to clean your ears." I call out to them, holding up some fresh cotton swabs as I approach them. After seeing the downed Cleo that had fallen victim to my ear cleaning, they look to me with an expression of uncertainty. "I dunno, Mister Jay. I don't wanna be tickled." Chell tries to talk me out of it, as does Katrina. "I concur, Jay. I beg of you not to do this." Katrina pleads with me, but her reasoning falls on deaf ears.

"Yeah, no. I can't do that, or else you'll get an inflammation." I try to talk them out of their hesitance myself, but they're still rather reluctant to listen to me. They quickly look to each other and nod once, as if both coming to a logical conclusion. Quickly catching on to what they're up to, I shake my head as I hold out both of my hands in an attempt to negotiate with the two. "Don't even think about running, you two. It's only gonna make things harder on yourselves." I warn them, although they still immediately split up and circle around me to reach the door. "Dani, use Cotton Spore on the floor around the door. Ness, use your vines to hold them down. I'm gonna have to get this done either way." I sigh, being forced to do this the hard way.

"On it!" Dani replies, nodding as she quickly covers the floor around the entrance to the bathroom in a pile of sticky cotton, quickly trapping Chell and Katrina as they try to escape. The sticky fluff renders them unable to flee, held in place as they try to free themselves from the gummed up floor. Nesia then uses her vines to bind the two escapees in vine cocoons and hold them in the air in front of me. Struggling, Chell quickly pleads with me as the cotton swab nears her ear. "Mister Jay, wait! Please don't do this, please!" She begs, Katrina quickly doing the same. "Please don't, Jay! I implore you to reconsider!" She cries helplessly, struggling against the vines and hoping for even the slightest opening to escape. "Sorry, girls. You didn't comply when you had the chance, and now you've forced me to do this the hard way." I sigh, closing in.

( A few minutes later…)

"I'm telling ya, kiddo. You need to hold still." I sigh, trying to get the deed done while she struggles. "But Mister Jay, you're going in so deep! A-ahn!" Chell moans, drooling a bit from what I'm doing to her while she's still wrapped up. "I know, but it's the only way to do this, kid." I remind her gently, moving on to Katrina. Going inside her as well, I begin to move my fingers around, making the feline squirm and moan. "Ah, Jay! You're making this feel so good! Nhn!" She moans, drooling as well from the stimulus I'm providing.

Nesia is watching intently, with a blush spread out on her face. "Such technique, Master…" She's awestruck by my skill in handling the two bound Pokemon as I get to work, Dani and Lily also with blushes on their faces. "Kinda makes me wish I had ears." Dani muses, making me stare at her with a look of amusement. "Nah, I'd rather you not have ears. This is hella awkward as it is." I tell her as the two moan and squirm in Nesia's hold, Alita's blush the deepest of them all. "You're secretly enjoying this aren't you, you pervert?" She grins teasingly as she accuses me, trying to hide her blush. "No, I'm not. This is really weirding me out." I tell her, making her huff. "Mister Jay, please do it more…" She moans, a look of ecstasy spread out on her face as she accepts my actions. "I agree. This is delightful, nya…" Katrina mumbles, her drool now seeping out of her open maw and onto the floor below.

Sighing, I roll my eyes as I clean out the inside of their ears with the cotton swab. "This can't feel that good for you. You're just making this up, aren't you?" I question the two Pokemon, who are currently showing some pretty funny faces as they get drunk off of the pleasure. "Ah'm with ya, Jay. Ah didn't feel that good ta make a face like that." Cleo adds, looking at the two with no shortage of confusion. "Noooo, Mister Jay. This feels too good…" Chell pants, her drool dripping out of her mouth and staining the floor. "Nya… So good…" Katrina is also happy to voice her opinions on the matter as well, the both of them really finding the ear cleaning enjoyable now. On second thought, maybe they do find this that good. Note to self: Chell and Katrina have very sensitive ears. "Please don't stop, Mister Jay…" Chell sighs dreamily, her ears now lightly twitching whenever I use the swab to wipe away the dirt inside it. "I'd like to request an extension of ear cleaning… An indefinite one…" Katrina mumbles, making me shake my head. "Nope, sorry. Can't overdo it, either. You might end up getting an infection in there, and I'm not taking any chances." I reply, Chell shaking her head in response. Well, as best she could while being drunk. "No… Who cares about that?" She whines, her expression begging me for more. She does not seem to care about reality anymore, now completely focused on the pleasurable feeling of the ear cleaning.

"So now you two enjoy this, huh?" I muse, finishing up the ear cleaning as I throw away the swab, leaving the two Pokemon to simply remain in the grasp of Nesia's vines. "Think the two of you can walk?" I ask them, only getting sighs of bliss and tired panting as my answer. "Welp, I guess that's a no. Ness, let me carry 'em now. I'll have to look out for these two until they're normal again." I sigh, Nesia heaving the two twitching Pokemon into my arms. "Did it really feel that good?" Lily asks, making me shrug. "I dunno. Ask 'em when they come to." I reply, Alita rolling her eyes. "It probably didn't feel that good, anyway." She huffs, to which I smirk. "Someone's jealous, I see." I grin, making the Tranquill scoff as she retorts. "No I'm not, you idiot!" She growls, before she averts her gaze from mine. As I chuckle, I suddenly smell the familiar scent of bacon, eggs, and coffee. "So, anyone feel like breakfast?" I ask, Cleo quickly nodding along with Nesia. "That sounds great! Ah'm famished!" She exclaims, running out to the living room to get some food.

I carry the two Pokemon in my arms into the living room, setting them onto the soft material of the couch. They simply lay there, that goofy expression of bliss still plastered on their faces. Sighing, I shake my head and chuckle as I walk into the living room to find Joey's Grandpa making himself some coffee. Taking a closer look at the coffee pot, I can see that it's fresh dark coffee. "Heya." I calmly approach the old man and greet him, making him smile as he greets me in return. "Well, good morning Jay. Did you sleep well?" He asks, to which I nod. "Yep. Slept like a log." I nod his way, before I set my eyes on the coffee pot again. "Say, could I have some coffee?" I ask him, getting him to smile as he pours me a cup of the stuff. "Here you go, Jay. Nice and hot." He replies, handing me the cup which I gladly take from his hands.

Nodding in thanks, I quickly take some milk from the fridge and pour it into the cup, making the coffee taste just a bit sweeter. Taking a sip and feeling satisfied by the taste, I head out into the living room once more, sitting down at the table to find a plate of bacon alongside a plate of eggs. Joey is already there, eating up his fill. When he sees me, he waves to me with his mouth full, making a sound that I interpret as a 'good morning'. "Don't talk with your mouth full, Joey. Your chewed food isn't gonna get swallowed if ya talk. Besides, bits of egg are flying out of your gullet, and it's a little gross." I reply, chuckling as he quickly gulps down his share of breakfast. The team is already digging in to the simple yet delicious meal, while I take a piece of bacon with an egg and sip at my coffee. Chell and Katrina have also awoken from their pleasure induced stupor, and are chomping down on the food in front of them without mercy or prejudice. Joey's Purrloin simply watches, awed by how fast they're murdering the plate of food before its eyes.

Cleo, however, isn't exactly willing to eat any of the food in front of her. "Oh, yeah. You don't eat meat or eggs, right?" I ask, getting her to reply with a nod. "Yup. Ah can't digest that stuff none, so Ah can't eat it." She replies, to which I pour her some milk into a glass. "How about some milk? I'm pretty sure you can drink this just fine." I suggest, which gets her to smile at me before lapping away at the stuff. "Thanks, Jay. Ah appreciate the consideration." She thanks me, while I chew on some eggs. "No problem." As the smell of rich, dark coffee hits my nostrils, I gulp down some of my cup's contents and let out a happy sigh. "Ah, this is the life." I muse, biting down into my strip of bacon and letting the crunchy, yet chewy strip of meat remain in my mouth for a bit longer before I swallow.

Having finally swallowed his food, Joey greets me the proper way. "Hi, Jay! Sleep well last night?" He asks, to which I reply with a nod. "Yep. And by the way, Cleo slept with us last night." I tell him, making him look down at the Mareep who's drinking some of the milk that I poured for her. "So that's where you went! I was worried about you, Cleo!" He exclaims, Cleo's ears drooping slightly and making her look quite guilty as she hears what the kid has to say. "Ah'm sorry, Joey. Ah didn't mean ta make ya worry." She apologizes, to which I explain to the kid with my handy Xtranceiver translating her speech for me. "She says she's sorry, Joey. Do you forgive her?" I translate, making Joey nod as he pets her head. "It's fine. As long as she didn't get hurt." He grins, making me smile as well. The kid's got a good heart, I'll give him that.

As we discuss the sudden disappearance of the Mareep, Joey's Grandfather walks in with his own cup of coffee, steaming hot and ready for consumption. "So Jay, I believe that you'll be headed into Pinwheel Forest to continue your journey." He speaks up, to which I nod. "Yep. I need to get to the other Gyms for my matches, ya know." I grin, affirming his suspicions. "Then you need to be prepared. "I suggest stocking up on Antidotes for the large amount of Venipede that you'll encounter along the way. Also, you'll need to watch out for larger dangers like the Scolipede inside the area. They've become more aggressive lately, and I have no idea why." He adds, getting me to nod as I chew on some more bacon.

"Got it. Stock up on more Antidotes back in town, and remember to keep my wits about me in case the Scolipede show up." I repeat what he had told me, taking a mental note to find those Poison curing potions. While I look down, I spot Cleo drinking her milk, while Joey's Purrloin uses its tail to push its half finished bowl of milk towards her. "Oh yeah. There's something I need to talk to you about." I speak up, Joey's grandfather raising an eyebrow. "What do you want to talk about?" He asks, to which I look at Cleo one more time before answering. "It's about Cleo. I want to take her along with me on my journey, and I'd like to know if you'll let me." I ask, bowing in respect to him when I request that.

This really gets Joey to do a spit take, drenching his bacon and eggs in the bits of their chewed up brethren. "What!? You wanna have Cleo!?" He shouts, making me wince. However, I don't look up, awaiting his grandfather's answer. Chuckling, Joey's grandfather simply replies my request with a question towards the Mareep. "Is this what you really want, Cleo?" He asks, getting Cleo to nod her head, a determined look in her eyes. Seeing his Pokemon's response, Joey's grandfather smiles. "I see. Well then Jay, you are free to leave with her." He nods, making Joey really look at him with an expression of sorrow this time around. "Oh, okay. I see." He nods, his head down and his expression unreadable.

Approaching Cleo, Joey them proceeds to look right at her. "What's up, Joey?" Cleo asks, her face showing concern for him, as he's already deviated from his normal cheery self. "Please, Cleo. Please don't go." He sniffs, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Joey's Purrloin sees Joey's sadness and tries to comfort him by nuzzling his leg, concern for its Trainer shown clearly across its face. "Cleo, please. I thought we were friends." He sniffs, to which I wince. Shit, I hadn't considered how Joey would have felt about this! This isn't good at all. I'm extremely bad when it comes to talking things through to younger kids, so there's no way for me to salvage the situation…

I'm at a loss for what to do in this situation, but old age once again proves to be the secret of wisdom as Joey's grandfather goes to comfort his grandson. "Listen, Joey. Cleo wants to leave the farm and see the world for herself." He calmly talks it over with him, Joey vigorously shaking his head. "No! I don't want her to leave!" He sobs, tears now dripping down his cheeks as Cleo and his Purrloin look at him with saddened faces. "Aw shucks, Joey. Please, don't cry…" Cleo tries to comfort him with a soft bleat, but it doesn't work. "You're one of my best friends, Cleo! Don't go!" He chokes, sniffling pitifully as his words drive the stinging feeling of guilt into my heart.

"Cleo isn't leaving us for good. You can still contact Jay to check up on her, and she'll be able to check up on you. She'll still be able to talk to you, and I can assure you that Jay will be more than happy to let you two catch up." He adds, looking to me for my confirmation of his assumption. Nodding, I speak up as he returns to comforting his crying grandson. "He's right, ya know. I gave you my phone number before, remember? You can call me when you feel like talking to her again, so don't worry about it." I reassure him, making him look up at me with a teary gaze. "You mean it?" He asks, making me nod in reply. "Yeah, I mean it. I don't have any problems with letting you two chat, and I'm pretty sure that Cleo won't have any issues with it, either." I add, getting Joey to smile at me thankfully.

"Thank you, Jay! You're the best!" He cries, latching onto me and giving me the biggest, most enthusiastic hug I've felt yet. If he were any bigger, he'd probably be able to squeeze the life outta me. His grandfather seems to have solved the problem, smiling as he watches his grandson hug me with no shortage of enthusiasm. "Okay, okay, Joey. I get that you're thankful and all, but could you please let go of me? I think I'm losing oxygen…" I cough, suddenly finding it a bit hard to breathe due to the kid's arms wrapped tightly around my lower torso. Cleo is happy to see her friend happy, and Joey's Purrloin also has a smile on its face again.

Soon after breakfast, I decide that it's time for us to be on our way. I step outside of the door to the house, my team following me close behind. As we take our leave, we take our time in waving goodbye to Joey, who's particularly concerned for our new Mareep teammate. "Bye, Jay! Bye, Cleo! I'll miss you!" He shouts, waving his hand with all his might. His grandfather simply watches with a knowing smile on his face, while I wave back to reciprocate Joey's farewell. Cleo waves her front leg to the kid as well, with a slightly sad expression on her face. Joey's Purrloin is simply watching her Trainer while in a sitting position, while Chell waves back to the two other humans that were kind enough to treat us to free meals.

"They were nice, weren't they?" Chell comments idly as we walk back into town, the passersby baffled to see a kid leading around so many Pokemon. "I agree. Those two were rather generous." Katrina nods in reply, to which Lily nods. "They were really nice to us." She agrees, while Alita is already out of earshot, already taking to the sky to stretch her wings. Nesia is simply resting her head on mine, having commandeered it as her new resting spot due to the lack of trees to swing on. "Yeah, that's kinda what I'd expect from Joey's granddad." Cleo nods, making me smirk. "You wool-d know, having hung around the two for a couple of years." I grin, making Cleo laugh as the joke gets recognized.

"Gosh, that was bad!" She snorts, Chell giggling as she hears me crack a pun. Nesia says nothing, opting to simply throw me a roll of the eyes. While we laugh it off, Dani suddenly throws me a question. "Oh, yeah. Jay, I wanted to ask. You and Kat went off to do something last night. When the two of you came back, you came back together. Kat even wanted to snooze on the couch with you. What did you do?" She asks, the question's answer making me cough as a faint blush forms on my cheeks. Katrina's face flushes red as well, having remembered the events of last night. "Sir, what are they talking about? What did you do?" Lily asks me, genuinely confused as to what the rest of her teammates were implying. "Well, that's a secret between the two of us. I'm not that comfortable with telling you now, so maybe later." I try to dodge the topic, but Chell looks at me with a slight pout of dissatisfaction with my answer. "But Mister Jay, I wanna know." She tells me, making me a mite nervous as she stares me down. "You two also smelled strange when you got back. Was it because of what you two were doing, Master?" Nesia pitches in on the questioning as well, making me panic internally. Shit, this is bad! If this keeps up, then they'll figure out what we did! How will they react? What will they think of me then?

"Well, neither Jay or I wish to discuss the matter as of now, so I would appreciate it if you left us be." Katrina interjects, saving me a bunch of problems as the team decides to take her word for it. "If you don't want to talk, then I won't ask." Nesia sighs, a little disappointed if nothing else that she couldn't learn anything new. "Okay then, if that's how the two of you feel about it…" Dani frowns, while Chell simply nods in response. "Okay then, Mister Jay. I won't ask you about it." The Dewott replies, getting me to pat her head. "Thanks for understanding, girls." I smile, secretly nodding at Katrina to show her my gratitude for saving me from the grasp of an awkward moment.

"Now, let's get some Anitdotes and get ready to head off into Pinwheel forest, eh?" I suggest, Katrina nodding as she follows behind me. "Always thinking ahead, Jay." She smirks, making me smile back. "Yeah, 'cause I need to look after you girls. What if you get hurt? I gotta help out, even if it isn't much." I reply, Chell shaking her head as she looks my way. "You do lots to help us, Mister Jay." She smiles, Nesia nodding as she rests on my shoulder. "I agree. Master helps us a lot." She firmly nods, to which Cleo grins. "It's only been a couple a' minutes, but Ah can already tell that this trip is gonna be fun." She comments with a spring in her step, as the rest of us follow close behind.


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50

[Jay]

It's a nice day out, and the team and I are out picking some fights with Trainers and Wild Pokemon alike in the outskirts of Pinwheel Forest. We already had the time to stock up on Antidotes, and the team seems to be as ready as ever. We've run into a bunch of Trainers so far, some even with a Tympole in their rosters. Man, people move fast when it comes to catching new Pokemon, eh? I'm not interested in catching one of those little tadpoles, though. Why? Personally, I find Chell to be quite the powerful Water Type, seeing her quickly rush up to the Tympole that our newest opponent is using to battle us and cut it down without any kind of fuss. Heh, that's my girl. As the Tadpole Pokemon slumps to the ground, defeated, the opponent sighs in defeat. Chell quickly throws me a thumbs-up, to which I quickly reciprocate with a thumbs-up of my own. Chell simply smiles from her spot on the field, having easily won herself another match.

"Ah, darn! I thought I actually had that!" The opposing Trainer grumbles, while I approach him and hold out my hand. "Nice fight there, buddy. You and your Tympole had me on the ropes for a second there." I chuckle, to which the guy grins. "That's reassuring. Seriously, your Dewott is so fast! It even got past Tympole's Round attack!" He shakes his head as he shakes my hand, making me smile. "To be fair, you did get her with that the first time. I honestly wasn't expecting your Tympole to have that move." I admit, while the teenager takes out his wallet and hands me some of his cash, a reward for my win. "Here you go. A deal's a deal, right?" I nod in response, taking the money from him and shoving it into my wallet. "I'm gonna head on back to the Pokemon Center. Gotta have Tympole healed up, ya know?" He speaks up, waving to me one last time before he heads back to town to get his Pokemon healed up. I decide to wander the area for a little longer, in case someone else wants a fight. The more experience for the team, the better.

"Nice work, Chell. You sure cut 'em down to size, eh?" I joke as I congratulate my proud little Dewott, who giggles as she hears me crank out another pun. Cleo giggles as well, the pun also having tickled her funny bone. "Golly, that was bad!" She laughs, getting Nesia to roll her eyes as I pat Chell on the head. "Ugh, for real!? Stop it with the puns already, idiot! You're ruining the victory!" Alita groans, smacking my head with her wing as my joke grates against her nerves. Katrina simply smiles from where she's sitting, making sure to keep an eye out for any wild Pokemon that might consider our party an easy target. However, she seems to be more focused on the conversation we're having at the moment. "I still don't get why Alita gets so angry when she hears his jokes. They're bad, but that's no reason to hate him." Lily questions Dani, who simply smirks in response to her friend's ignorance.

"Listen, Lily. Seeing Ali's annoyed reaction is totally worth the bad joke." Dani simply pats her confused Petilil friend on the head, leaving it at that. Hearing Lily's comment, I frown in a fake manner. "Aw come on, Lily. My puns aren't that bad, are they?" I ask her, making her look worried when she sees my mock sadness. "N-no! They're not that bad! I-I mean they're not bad at all! No, wait! I mean, uh…" She tries to salvage a situation that she thought was her fault, however by her stuttering and her constant slip ups, I can already tell that she's caught between telling me the truth and consoling me. "Nah, I was messing with ya. I'm not too concerned about how bad my jokes are. Hell, I know they're bad. Don't worry your little head about it, eh?" I chuckle, ruffling her leaves and making her giggle.

"But if they're bad, why tell them?" Nesia asks, making me shrug. "You see, my dad used to tell me these kinds of jokes all the time. It was kinda his trademark, so I say them to remind myself of him. Also, I agree with Dani's opinion. Seeing the annoyance of others that hear my jokes is simply too much fun." I grin, making Dani nod in agreement. "You got that right, Jay! Up top!" She grins, holding out her leaf in order for the two of us to share a high five. Well, high leaf, if you use Dani's perspective. However, as we let loose some casual banter, we completely miss the fact that a particularly confident group of Tympole have decided to surround us, the little tadpole Pokemon looking ready to attack us in unison with a combined Round. Seeing the puddles that those little bastards are still swimming in, I come to the realization that these little guys were waiting for people like us to sneak up on and ambush. Damn, the puddles around here sure make for some great camouflage…

"Split up, team! They're getting ready to attack!" I warn the group, all of the Pokemon quickly following my command and shifting out of the way where the Tympole were planning to blast us with the sound based attack. Luckily for us, they had only decided to focus all of their attacking efforts into a singular area, so we avoided getting deaf with relative ease. With that little sneak attack avoided, I quickly start commanding the team around in order to take out as many of the Tympoles as quickly as possible. "Lily, Stun Spore! Dani, Cleo, Cotton Spore!" The three quickly pick up on what they're supposed to do, and quickly get to work. "Huh? R-right!" Lily responds, quickly shaking her leaves and releasing a cloud of paralyzing spores that quickly stick to the skins of the Tympoles and the water surface.

Any Tympoles that were unfortunate enough to get some spores on them are immediately treated to the annoying effects of paralysis, finding themselves unable to move. A combined flurry of sticky cotton from Dani and Cleo quickly takes care of any stragglers that were smart enough to duck underwater, the sticky stuff quickly latching onto their skin and bogging them down. "Hah! Gotcha, ya little varmints!" Cleo grins victoriously, having been able to snare a bunch of the little Water Types with her cotton. With the group of sneaky Water Types unable to move, I quickly order Nesia to clean things up. "Nesia, Leaf Storm!" I tell the Servine, who promptly summons and launches a large amount of sharp leaves at the gummed up tadpoles, which are promptly defeated and swept away en masse by the sheer force of the high-powered attacking move.

However, the enemy isn't the only side who suffered losses from the whirlwind of leaves. As the Leaf Storm tears through the swathe of helpless Tympole, some water from the puddles around us getting whipped up by the wind from the Leaf Storm and splashing downwards onto a few unsuspecting team members. In particular, I see some water headed for Dani, the Cottonee a little too preoccupied by seeing her friend's Leaf Storm in action to see it coming. I act quickly, holding out my arm to shield her from the oncoming water. Luckily I reach her in time, my arm saving her from the moisture that would have rendered her coat soaking wet and unable to maintain her weightlessness.

As Dani turns around, she sees my soaking wet hoodie-clad arm dripping with water. Seeing her more or less dry, I sigh in relief. "Whew, that was close. You need to watch yourself, Dani. It's really wet out here, and getting your coat wet isn't exactly the best idea." I grin, to which she nods, smiling thankfully at me. "Yeah, I hear ya. Thanks for the save, Jay." Alita is simply watching from the side, smirking as she sees my quick save. "You're trying way too hard to be cool, you idiot." She sighs, making me shrug in response to her comment. "Eh, I just had the team's best interest in mind. As I recall, getting wet isn't something Dani likes. Besides, if I was trying to be cool, I would have come up with something better than that, Ali." I shoot back, stating the obvious and taking a look around the area. Seeing the number of cuts and bits of cotton on all of the defeated Tympoles, I can't help but wince. Yeesh, Nesia's Leaf Storm packs a punch. However, Katrina seems to be relatively unfazed by the scene of conked out tadpoles before her, simply opting to sit down on a particularly dry patch of grass.

Speaking of which, I decide to thank the little powerhouse of a Servine for her help. Reaching out to Nesia, I give the Servine a good pat on the head. She's looking quite proud of herself as she looks at her work, a slightly smug smile on her features. "Nice work out there, Ness. You sure did a number on those Tympoles, didn't you?" I praise her, to which she sighs happily as she tries to press her scaly head into my hand more. "Master's praise makes me so happy…" She mumbles, getting me to chuckle as I give her a few more head pats for good measure. As I pet the Servine, I notice that Lily is looking at what I'm doing with a look of longing. "Lily, want some head pats too?" I ask her, to which she looks at me in surprise. "Really? Are you sure?" She asks, her voice already unable to hold back her hopefulness. "Of course. You did some good work too, after all. C'mere." I grin, getting her to position herself within range of my hand. Once she's close enough, I pat her leaves, making the Grass Type giggle as she feels my hand touch the top of her head.

"Thank you, Sir!" She tells me, to which I chuckle. "No need to thank me, Lily. Helping me out is already thanks enough." I tell her, before my phone rings. I'm initially surprised by the sound, but I quickly realize who this might be and let out a groan. "Is he callin' again? It's only been two minutes since the last one!" Cleo exclaims, sighing as she figures out who it might as well be. "Well, only one way to find out." I sigh sarcastically in reply. Putting the phone to my ear, I press the button to accept the call. "Hello? This is Jay." I speak up, before hearing a familiar voice on the other end. "Jay! I wanted to ask you about Cleo! Is she okay!?" Joey's voice rings loud and clear in my ear, his volume making me wince as I move my phone further from my ear.

"Like she was two minutes ago, Joey. She's fine. Now don't call me this often, okay? You're using up my mobile data." I warn the kid, a distinct frown of annoyance now forming on my face. "But how will I know if she's fine? What if she-" Joey begins his argument anew, but before he can make it past his second sentence I stop him. "Joey!" I tell him gently but sternly, getting him to quiet down. "Listen, bud. She's gonna be fine. I won't let anything bad happen to her, so you can rest easy, alright?" I reassure him for the fifth time this morning, making sure to tell him slowly this time so he can pick up on what I have to say. "But-" He starts, before I cut him off. "No buts, kid. You're too young to be interested in those. Now, study hard and get your Trainer's License, okay? You need to work hard, and so do I. Also if you call me again within the next five minutes, I am seriously not gonna answer your call." I warn him, before promptly hanging up on the kid.

"He called you again, huh?" Dani asks, already guessing correctly as to what that phone call was. "Yup." I give her a simple reply, as Katrina decides to make her way back over to me while we chat. "He certainly doesn't seem to trust you, does he?" She comments, getting me to shake my head. "Nah, that's probably not it. In any case, he's worried about Cleo." I reply, to which Alita responds in kind. "I don't blame him. Being around a perverted idiot like you would make anyone worry." She states with a smirk, making me roll my eyes with a smirk. "Uh huh. And for some unexplainable reason, you haven't left this perverted idiot yet. Totally convincing argument there, Ali." I shoot back, getting the Tranquill to huff.

"Yeah, right. I'm just making sure no one else falls victim to your perverted tendencies, idiot." She retorts, making me chuckle. "And I like you too, Ali. There, there." I respond, patting her head in a friendly gesture. "Hey! Don't treat me like Nesia, you idiot! I don't need your hands touching me!" Alita growls, to which I grin. "And you're not flying off to avoid my head pats. You secretly want this, don't you?" My grin grows cheeky as I tease her, making her blush slightly as she looks away. "No, I don't! Who the hell do you think I am, you stupid idiot?" She tries and fails to justify her course of action, her reaction almost making her seem a little cuter. She's pretty adorable too, in her own little way. Meanwhile, Nesia shakes her head. "You like Master's head pats too. Don't deny it." She speaks up, trying to get Alita to be a little more honest, but her efforts are futile. However, she does get Alita's slight blush to deepen a bit, so that's technically a win. "No, I don't! Stop thinking that I do, damn it!" Alita denies Nesia's statement, to which Nesia sighs. "You just aren't honest to yourself." She adds, before simply leaving it at that.

"Alright, team. We oughta get going into the forest. I wanna try and get some ways into the forest before we head to bed today, yeah?" I suggest, Chell quickly picking herself up and off the ground in order to follow beside me. "This is going to be one of the first harder areas that we're going to head on through as a team, so we should be careful in there. Everyone needs to make sure that they stay close to each other, or else we won't be able to get to the next town. I'm not gonna lie, this is gonna be one heck of a challenge. Are you sure you're ready for this?" I ask them, Alita quickly affirming her mental preparation with a smirk. "Hell yes, I'm ready! Bring it on!" She grins, happily accepting the challenge presented in stride. "Yes, Master. I am ready." Nesia nods, looking quite determined to complete the task at hand herself. "I'm ready, Mister Jay! You can count on me!" Chell voices her confidence, placing a paw on her chest. "Well, no time like the present, right? Ah'm ready too, Jay. Give the word." Cleo confirms, to which Dani and Lily nod. "I'm ready, Sir!" Lily nods, despite her voice being a bit quieter than the rest of the team. "I'm ready too, so let's get going!" Dani grins, to which Katrina sets her sights on the row of trees. "I am prepared as well. Let us commence with our travels." She adds.

"Alright, that sounds like a yes to me. Alright, team. Let's go!" I smile, Chell quickly taking the lead as we walk towards the forest. The rest of the team is quick to follow Chell and walk a little ways ahead of me, save for a certain feline. Katrina used to follow behind in case of danger, but this time she seems to prefer sticking closer to me instead. Upon reaching my side, she casually slides a little bit of her tail into my hoodie pocket as she walks with me. Her eyes are still focused on the road ahead, so I'd assume that she's trying to make this seem discrete. My hands are shoved in my pockets, so I am able to feel her tail brush against my hand. She curls her tail around my hand and squeezes my palm gently, taking me by surprise. Looking down, I can see that she's looking away with a slight blush as she tries to hold my hand.

She did use the computer to search up about how sex between humans was supposed to be done, so maybe she also decided to search up how humans show affection to their significant other as well. Right now, she seems to be trying to replicate the human gesture of holding hands, like lovers usually do in those romance movies. This is weird, to say the least. She was so bold when she came onto me, and now she's acting like a shy schoolgirl. Chuckling, I decide to reciprocate the feelings of my feline mate, gently squeezing her tail in kind. She gasps lightly upon my fingers wrapping around her tail end, but she quickly smiles up at me, her expression showing her delight in my return of her romantic gesture. "So you do have some sense of shame, huh?" I tease the Liepard, my voice lowered so only she could hear me. "I suppose it's partially due to the fact that I don't want the others to know of our little debacle." She sighs almost painfully, making me sigh as well.

"Yeah, I know. I don't need them to know yet, either. I have no idea how they'll take it, and I don't need any of them getting the wrong idea." I reply, getting Katrina to nod. "I suppose I understand what you mean. Although, I believe it is unwise to keep such a secret hidden for long." She agrees, squeezing my hand a little tighter with her tail. However, her words get me thinking. How wow wHowould Katrina react if any of the others came onto me like she did? Would she be okay with sharing? Hell, would the other girls be okay with sharing? Would I even be okay with it? Damn it all, this is so annoying to think about…

"Mister Jay?" I'm suddenly jerked out of my thoughts by Chell, who's looking at me with a look of concern. "Is there something wrong, Mister Jay?" She repeats, making me shake my head. "Nah kiddo, I'm fine. I was just thinking about stuff, that's all." I assure her, patting her head in thanks for her consideration. She still seems a little suspicious of my answer, but simply nods as she walks back ahead of me. However, she didn't seem to notice Katrina's tail in my pocket. Looking up and in front of me, I can see that Nesia is staring at the trees up ahead with want, already aching to climb some trees again. However, a few of the other girls are having second thoughts about going into the forest.

"I thought I was ready, but now that I take another look at it, I'm not so sure…" Dani gulps, already looking nervous as we approach the entrance to Pinwheel Forest. "I know. It looks so scary…" Lily whimpers as she shakes like a leaf, both of the Grass Types quickly looking around and opting to hide in Cleo's wool for comfort. "Hey! What in tarnation are you two up ta!?" The Mareep yelps, feeling the sudden presence of the two small invaders in her fluffy exterior. "I'm so sorry, Cleo. I'm just scared of all the bugs in there…" Lily squeaks, scared for her life. "Yeah! Bug Types are really freaking scary!" Dani nods, before the two of them resume their hiding inside Cleo's wooly coat. Their reactions are to be expected, after all. They did have a bad run in with Scolipede before, so I'm not too surprised.

"Nah, there's no way that something like this forest is that scary, right? It's just a bunch of plants and small bugs!" Alita retorts, making Cleo shake her head. "Ah'm afraid it just ain't that simple, Alita." She sighs, getting the Tranquill to look at the Mareep in confusion. I stop right outside the forest entrance, in order to address the team about any potential dangers that may lie ahead. "Listen up, everyone. This forest isn't going to be any easier than the rest of the places we've been to. If anything, it's only gonna get harder from here." I begin, which only serves to further frighten Lily and Dani, both of them letting out a frightened sound and completely disappearing into Cleo's wool. "You're gonna have to watch out for Pokeballs, and remember not to touch 'em. They might be Foongus, or worse, Amoongus. Those cheeky bastards disguise themselves as Pokeballs to knock out and feast on unwary Trainers and Pokemon, so be careful."

"Wait, what!? There are Pokemon that can do that!?" Alita gawks, making me nod with a solemn expression. "Yep, there are. Make sure not to get close to those, or you'll end up becoming their next meal." Alita quickly gulps, staring to catch on really quickly as to why Dani and Lily were scared. At this point, Chell and Nesia are also on guard, staring at the forest with narrowed eyes and tensed stances. "Also, make sure not to wander past the paths inside the forest. Scolipede are rather commonplace in there, and from what Joey's grandfather said, there's a high chance that we'll bump into one. However, most of them know not to stray too close to the path, as the Rangers in there with their Fire Type Pokemon have made sure of. As long as we stay on the right path, we won't get attacked by one of those lumbering giants." I finish, looking to the team to see if they had gotten any of what I had said.

However, I had not expected to see the rest of the team to be as stiff as stones, while Cleo's wool was showing a surprising amount of trembling coming from within. Even Katrina's tail is stiff in my grasp, which really makes me worry. "Uh, girls? You okay there?" I ask, a little concerned for their own mental states. "Y-yeah! I'm definitely ready for this!" Alita shouts a little louder than usual, almost as if she's trying to convince herself this time around. Nesia says nothing, but her tense form and her glare towards the forest already tell me all I need to know. Chell is more or less acting the same way the Servine is, tense and already on edge because of my warnings. By the way they're already bracing themselves, I can tell that they're pretty scared now. "I'm not particularly positive about this…" Katrina admits, looking at the forest with her fur standing on end. "Ah'm with Kat on this one. That there forest don't sound too safe ta go into." Cleo gulps, looking quite nervous about the whole idea herself.

However, the ones that are shaken up the most are the two Grass Types in the Mareep's wool. "I don't wanna go in there. Jay said there were Scolipede…" Lily squeaks, her voice now barely above a whisper. "Same. He just made that place sound so much scarier…" Dani whispers, ducking back into the soft coat of wool for comfort. Sighing, I shrug as I turn around and take a seat on the ground. "Well, I suppose that going into Pinwheel Forest for now is a no, huh?" I comment, seeing the team all visibly relax upon hearing me say that. "Okay, then. If we're not going in, then I think that we should start getting some training done. Does that sound good to everyone?" I suggest, seeing everyone get a little more enthusiastic about the new plan of action.

"Yeah! That sounds great!" Alita quickly goes with my plan, sounding off her affirmative and nodding her head almost a little too quickly. "Ah reckon that's a good a plan as any. Can't get the job done if yer not prepared, after all." Cleo adds, although I can hear her breathe out a sigh of relief shortly after her pitching in. "I concur. Let us train for a while to improve our battling skills." Katrina also goes with the timely escape plan presented to her, while Dani and Lily finally peek their heads out of the comfy safe haven that is Mareep wool. "We're not going in anymore, Sir?" Lily asks hopefully, to which Dani softly sounds off a triumphant 'yes' in response to what she had just heard. "Yep, we're not heading in." I confirm Lily's question, which makes the Petilil break into a relieved smile. "Alright, team. Let's stay out here for now, and get some practice in. Can't win if we're not prepared, right?" I grin, the team letting out cries of agreement. "Alright, now I'm gonna need you to practice in pairs. Battle against each other, or even smack some scenery around, and I'll see how you fight." I tell them, watching them split up to spar against each other.

Meanwhile, Chell and Nesia are simply looking down at the ground, guilt etched across their faces. My smile dissipating, I approach them and take a seat next to them. They flinch when they see me sit down, making me even more worried. "What's up, you two?" I ask them, Chell raising her head and looking at me in shame. "I wasn't brave enough to go in with you, Mister Jay. I'm sorry." Chell replies, finding herself unable to look me in the eyes. Nesia says nothing, but I can figure that from her own expression that she's feeling the same way Chell is. Sighing, I pat their heads. "Come on, you two. I don't blame you for being scared. Everyone's scared of something, and I wouldn't expect you to be any different." I chuckle, Chell and Nesia lifting their heads just a tiny bit, enough to for their gazes to meet mine. "But you wanted us to go into the forest today. We're slowing you down, because we aren't brave enough…" Nesia says dejectedly, making me shake my head. Not only are they disappointed in themselves for letting me down, they're also taking this blow to their pride a little hard. The Oshawott and Snivy evolution lines get more and more prideful down the road, so their pride means way more to them than most Pokemon.

"No, it's fine. Like I said, kiddo. It's your adventure as much as it is mine, and I don't want to pressure you into something that you don't want to do. Besides, I'm pretty sure you two would be scared of something, no matter how proud you are." I reassure them, both of the two proud starters locking their gazes with mine. "Mister Jay…" Chell whispers, looking at me with a small smile. "Master…" Nesia says, her smile just as cute as Chell's. They don't say anything, but I can already tell that they're already feeling much better when I told them that. "Tell ya what. In order to protect your pride, I'll keep this terrible fear of yours a secret between us, alright? The others don't need to know about this, and they don't have to." I grin, putting a finger to my lips and making Chell giggle. "You're so silly, Mister Jay!" She giggles, Nesia also letting loose a giggle herself.

"Now come on and join the rest of them team, you two. Get to training, and you'll be able to kick the crap out of those Bug Types in no time." I smile, seeing them nod as they turn to face off against each other. Chell quickly moves forth, slashing at Nesia with her blades, while Nesia uses her vines, as well as her speed to maintain her distance from the Dewott. The both of them are really going at it, as Nesia quickly sends an Energy Ball at Chell, who cleaves through it with her blades before covering them in ice. She then begins her offense, raising her blades and charging at Nesia to close the gap between them. Nesia is forced to block with a Leaf Blade, her tail glowing a bright green, before she flings herself away from Chell with the ground as leverage for her tail. Smirking, I simply sit back and watch them go at it as the sun continues to rise higher into the sky. And just like that, the plan to trek into the lush greenery of Pinwheel forest was put on hold. Well, I guess that can wait. We're not pressed for time, anyways.


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter 51

[Jay]

"Brother?" I hear a voice call out to me as I read through my book for what seems to be the umpteenth time. Using my bookmark to mark the page for future referencing, I turn to the high pitched, squeaky voice of my sister who's just peeked her head around the corner and into the room I was reading in.. "Heya, Sis. What's up?" I greet her with my usual grin, getting her to smile a happy smile as she runs over to me. "Brother! There you are. They told me I would find you here!" She proclaims, sitting down next to me as she holds up a Rubik's Cube. "Come on, Brother! I made you a puzzle to solve!" She tugs on my sleeve impatiently, holding up her 'puzzle' up for me to see.

"What's the goal of this one?" I ask her, to which she points to the square of red in the middle of the white squares. "You have to match up the tiles like this, so that they surround a color with another one. Try it! I know that you'll be stumped this time!" She declares, puffing out her chest in pride. In response to her issued challenge, I shrug. "I dunno, Sis. Being japed isn't on my list of to-dos right now…" I reply, faking a look of consideration as she huffs. "Come on, Brother! I've even decided to go easy on you this time, so I made one of the sides for you. Please?" She pleads with me, looking at me with her best pleading face.

"Alright, I'll give it a shot." I reply, holding out my hand to receive the Rubik's Cube from her head. "Yes! That's the spirit, Brother!" She grins, watching me take a look at the toy before I begin to turn it. Seeing me initiate with my attempt to solve it, she smirks with her eyes closed. "This puzzle will take some level of thinking, Brother! However, there is no need to worry! I will be here to give you a hint, should you need-" She rants, before I hold the cube up to her face.

"I'm done, Sis." I call out to her, quickly jerking her from her realm of confidence as she opens her eyes for a second. "Eh?" She says aloud, before her confusion turns to shock as she gawks at the finished cube. "EH!?" She yells, making me wince a bit as she snatches the Rubik's Cube from my hand, inspecting it as if I hadn't done exactly as she had wanted me to. "But how!? I had made sure that this puzzle wasn't solvable! Even I couldn't solve this one!" She whines, her frowning face along with her exaggerated reaction making her extremely funny. As such, I did what any respectable big brother and appreciator of humor would do at that moment: laugh my ass off at her response.

My laughter makes my sister look at me with her angry face, as she pounds me with her fists. Well, the best angry face she could muster with her being so flustered and all, but still… "Don't laugh, Brother! You're so mean!" She yells, bashing me as I lift up my hands in an attempt to block the deadly blows. "Help! Anyone! Domestic brutality! My sister is killing me with her punches!" I yelp, snickering all the while. As usual, my sister relents in her punching as soon as she hears the word 'kill', stopping in her attempts to kill me. "Brother, I'm so sorry! You're not hurt too badly, are you?" She apologizes, her concern for me making me ruffle her head.

"Eh, I'm fine. Thanks for your concern, though." I grin, making her glare at me again as she realizes that she's been tricked. However, she quickly lets her glare dissipate and lets sadness replace it as she sits down next to me. "You always manage to solve my puzzles, Brother. You can even help Dad with his work. You're so smart, and look at me. I can't even read." She sighs, making me sigh as I pat her on the head. "Now now, Sis. Don't feel down about it. Just because you're not smart, doesn't mean you should bash yourself for it." I comfort her, making her look up at me hopefully again.

"You mean it?" She asks me, to which I nod in confirmation. "Yeah. And besides, I might be smart, but no one's ever gonna be as cool and as great as you, Sis." I grin her way, seeing her eyes widen as she gives me the biggest grin I've seen her give me yet. She hugs me tightly as she grins, nuzzling her face into my lab coat. "Thank you, Sans. You're the best brother anyone could have." She whispers, making me chuckle as I ruffle her head. "And you're the coolest sister anyone could ever have, Paps." I reply, before I suddenly feel something furry poke my nose. What the heck? There isn't anything furry in the lab that I know of, so what's…

I'm quickly snapped out of my dream and thrust back into the waking world, making me let out a groan. As I open my eyes a crack, I see a curious Dewott poking at my nose with her paw. Her paw feels sweaty, which most likely indicates the happenings of a rather intense brawl that I had not been aware of during my nap. Other from Katrina and Alita, who are going at it with full force, the rest of the team are already relaxing on the grass. "Dewott Dew?" Chell asks me in her native tongue, making me realize that I haven't put my Xtranceiver on yet. "Hold on, kid. Let me slip this into my ear first." I hold up a hand to tell her to wait, reaching into my bag and putting on the Xtranceiver 2.0. "Alright, it's in place. What did you wanna tell me?" I ask her, to which she sits down next to me before she begins to speak again.

"Ness and I are going to take a break, and we've decided to relax next to you." Chell replies, Nesia nodding her confirmation of her friend's explanation as she curls up in my lap. Her tail swishes lazily as she rests up, her once shiny scales now laced with specks of dirt and cuts from the brawl she had with Chell earlier. Seeing Chell bruised and battered as well makes me raise an eyebrow at the two, letting me notice just how hard these two had been fighting each other while I was napping. Kinda makes me feel bad that I wasn't watching them to begin with, to be honest. Smiling, I scratch Chell behind her ears while I pet Nesia on her head, both of them letting out sighs of happiness when I rub their heads affectionately.

"You two sure work hard, dontcha?" I chuckle, letting up on my heaqd pats for now and looking the two over to see if they were still doing okay. "Of course. If not, we won't win." Nesia says matter-of-factly, looking up at me with her usual expression. "Good point." I smile, using my fingernails to lightly scrape her scales, making her smile as she nuzzles her head into my chest a little. In response to Nesia's comment, Chell frowns to show her fake discontentment. "You could have gone easier on me, Ness. You almost made me faint with that Leaf Storm of yours! You know I'm weak to Grass Type moves!" She huffs playfully, the Servine looking at her friend with a neutral expression. "You're one to talk. You used you Razor Ice and your Ice Beam on me, even though I was weak to both of those moves." She retorts, smiling at the other starter. Seeing her friend catching on to her idea, she giggles in response to her friend's witty comeback.

"I know, Ness. You sure hit hard, ya know?" She grins, making Nesia nod as she acknowledges the compliment. "I know. Your attacks hurt lots too, Chell." She replies, although her slightly smug smile shows me that she's already inflating her ego with that compliment. I sigh and poke her head lightly in response, making her flinch as she feels my finger connect with her forehead. "Master?" She looks at me in confusion, to which I poke her head again. "Don't get too confident, alright? Confidence is fine, but arrogance isn't." I lightly warn her, getting her to pout as she folds her arms. "I was just appreciating Chell's compliment, Master." She huffs, making me roll my eyes. "No, you weren't. Your smile told me everything." I shoot back at her, making her frown. "Tch. Master is way too observant." She pouts. "Mister Jay saw right through you that time, Ness!" She giggles, making me smirk as I ruffle the Dewott's head.

"Master doesn't have to be so observant all the time." Nesia huffs, sulking in a manner that makes her so damn adorable as she voices her complaint. Chuckling, I rub her head. "I'm observant because I need to look out for you girls. Gotta make sure that none of you get into trouble, or else I wouldn't be a good Trainer, now would I?" I reply, getting the Servine to soften her gaze as she sighs. "Master's hands are soft and warm. They're too powerful to resist…" She smiles, making me chuckle as I pet her. "I know, right? They're sooo strong…" Chell smiles, making me pet her head as well. "I know they are, and I don't mind making you girls happy whenever I can." I add, watching the two starter Pokemon melt into my ministrations for a little bit.

As I relax alongside the two Pokemon, I am suddenly blindsided by something furry and soft wrapping around my eyes. The furry object latches itself around my eyes, obstructing my line of sight as I yelp. "Gah! What the heck?" I mutter, hearing someone giggle in response to my distress. "Guess who?" The voice teases me, making me smile in response. "I know it's a lady that is pretty and catlike. Now, would you be kind enough let me see again?" I ask her, to which the feline complies as she unravels her tail from my eyes. "You always know what to say to make a lady feel special, Jay." She smiles playfully at me, a light blush spread across her face as she nuzzles my arm with her body.

"Heya, Kat. So if you're here, then where's Ali?" I ask her, but I quickly find that my question is unnecessary. "I'm up here, Jay." I hear the Tranquill's voice calling out to me as she swoops down into view. Landing on the ground next to me, she quickly takes a seat down next to the group. "Sup, Ali. How was your sparring against Kat?" I ask her, getting the bird to smirk as she hears the question. "Well, what do you think?" She asks rhetorically, making me grin. "You lost miserably?" I suggest with that goofy grin of mine, making her groan. "No, you idiot! I totally wiped the floor with her!" She boasts, making Katrina shake her head. "If you deem neither of us being able to seriously damage the other as wiping the floor with me, then that sounds about right." She shoots back, making Alita blush in embarrassment as her attempt to show off gets shut down.

"Hey! T-that's not true!" She huffs, making Katrina giggle as she savors her friend's flustered state. Seeing her get so flustered makes me grin as well, as I reach out to rub her head. Her breathing is increased by a significant amount, so I can already tell that she had been having one hell of a match with Katrina while I was asleep. "Hey! What are you doing, you idiot!?" She yelps, feeling my hand come onto contact with her head. "Petting you, duh. It's my way of saying thanks. Thanks for the effort you put into training with Kat, Ali." I thank her, making her look a little guilty as she hears me praise her. "I kinda lied about that, though…" She mutters, to which I smirk. "Eh, it's fine. Lying isn't something I encourage, so try not to do that. Just because you didn't hit anything, doesn't mean you didn't work hard. Besides, you don't need to lie for me to know that you've worked hard." I tell her, getting her to blush as she looks away with a huff. "Whatever. It's not like I was doing it for the praise, you know." She says dismissively, although she does crack a slight smile as she says so.

"Yeah, I know. But praise does make you feel nice, right?" I comment, patting her on the head a couple more times. "Well, yeah! Of course it does! Who wouldn't be happy that they got praised?" Alita says in response, before she lowers her voice to something barely above a whisper. "…I wouldn't mind if you praised me more, though." She adds, making me smile. "Sure thing. I'll keep that in mind, then." I reply, seeing the final three members of the group show up to relax with us. "Hello, Sir!" Lily greets me with a smile, skipping on over next to me as Dani follows quickly behind. "Sup, Jay." She waves to me with her leaf appendage, to which I return with a nod. "Howdy, Jay!" Cleo acknowledges my presence with a smile of her own, sitting down next to me along with Lily and Dani.

"Heya, you three. How goes the practice?" I ask, to which the three newcomers look at me sheepishly. "Well, about that…" Dani chuckles nervously, while Lily and Cleo both look equally guilty when they hear me ask the question. "I'm sorry, Sir! We really wanted to, but we didn't know what to do..." Lily suddenly blurts out, which only confirms my initial suspicions. "Ah'm sorry, Jay. Mah bad." Cleo sheepishly grins. Welp, I can pretty much figure out what they did while I was snoring. Sighing, I pat the heads of the three. "Eh, it's fine. If ya needed help, then you should have asked. I'm always happy to help, even if it's only a suggestion." I tell them, smiling wryly.

"Tell ya what. While the others rest up, I take a look at what I think you should work on. Sound good to you?" I suggest, Cleo immediately nodding in reply. "That sounds great!" She replies, Lily and Dani quickly following the sheep Pokemon and I to a little ways away from the relaxing area of the rest of the team. "For starters, could you tell me what moves you know?" I ask, Dani floating in front of me to explain her move set first. "Well, I can use Razor Leaf and Cotton Spore, for starters. I know how to use Stun Spore, Growth and Leech Seed, too!" She boasts, making me raise an eyebrow. "Wait, you know how to use those moves?" I ask her, making her scoff at me. "Uh, yeah! Most Grass Types should know how to use these move, Jay." She replies, Lily nodding as she tells me what she knows. "I can use Leech Seed and Growth too, Sir." She adds, getting me to take a look at Nesia.

"Ness, can you use Leech Seed?" I ask the Servine, who nods from her comfortable spot on the ground. "I can use Growth, too." She adds, making me face palm. God damn it, how did I overlook that!? That's Trainer's School basics right there, and I just forgot! "You okay there, Jay?" Cleo asks me, looking a bit worried when she sees my face of disappointment. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just disappointed in myself, that's all." I sigh, before I quickly refocus on the task at hand. "Alright, that's a nice move pool, but I think that the two of you should learn how to use the move Giga Drain. Having a move to damage your opponent and get some of your energy back is a good idea, and Giga Drain does some pretty good damage as well. Sound good?" I suggest, Dani and Lily both nodding in response.

"Ness, I'm gonna need you to listen in, too. You might find this move useful too, after all." I call out to Nesia, the Servine nodding and slithering over to me. I walk towards the forest, stopping at the edge in order to get to it. "Alright. In order for you three to learn Giga Drain, you'll need to focus on a target, like a tree or another Pokemon. Personally, I recommend aiming your practice at trees, because using Giga Drain on other Pokemon, wild or otherwise, is really hard to pull off if you don't practice on a still target. Giga Drain needs focus to work, so a tree is a perfect target to start off with." I explain, Dani nodding as she hears me out. "That sounds great and all, but how do I do that?" She asks, to which I point to the tree.

"First, focus on the tree. Try to think about seeing the energy in the tree." I tell her, Nesia quickly squinting at the tree she's targeting. However, Lily and Dani are still at a loss at what to do. "Wait, what?" Dani repeats herself, still confused about what I was trying to tell her. "Sorry Sir, but I don't get it." Lily adds, getting me to sit down next to them. "It's okay. Take your time, because it does take a while to get anything the first time." I reply, Dani and Lily nodding as they both focus on their trees again. "Sorry Jay, but I'm still not seeing much of anything right now." Dani sighs, before I suddenly hear Lily gasp. "Sir, I see something! I see something green in the tree!" She squeals, making me grin at her. "Sure it's not the moss on the tree you're seeing?" I ask her, making her excitement immediately deflate. "Oh…" She frowns sadly, making Nesia shake her head. "Master is toying with you, Lily. There isn't any moss on the tree." She tells the Petilil, who looks at Nesia. "Really?" She asks the Servine, who nods to confirm her observations.

"Wait a second, you're right!" Lily's eyes widen in realization, and she glares at me in response. Well, her glare could use some work, because it makes her look cute… "You tricked me! You're so mean, Sir!" Lily huffs, Nesia sighing as she looks at me with a fake sorrowful expression. "We all like Master so much, yet he treats us as his playthings. He's so mean, right Lily?" She sighs forlornly, making me grin wryly as I pat both their heads. "Alright, alright, I get it. I'll never do that to you again, okay? Can you forgive me for being so mean?" I apologize, bowing my head to the two Grass Types. Nesia simply huffs before turning away, leaving Lily to look at me. "I can't decide that, Master. Whether Lily forgives you or not is the important thing here." She replies, Lily beginning to look guilty for putting me in such a disposition.

"Yes, Jay! I forgive you, so stop bowing please!" She blurts out, making me smile as I look at her flustered state. "I know you don't really hate me for that, so calm down. I was joking, anyways." I reply, patting her head to get her to calm down. Nesia turns around, smiling triumphantly at her victory over me. "See, Lily? Master is easy to guilt trip." She giggles, making me roll my eyes at the cheeky little Servine. "Uh huh. Now focus on using Giga Drain, Ness." I sigh, patting her on the head and getting her to smile as she focuses on the tree once again. Lily also follows suit, Dani having been quiet as she's a little focused on her tree right now.

"Now, once you see the energy within, try to will the energy to come to you. Imagine yourself absorbing all that useful power, and becoming stronger again." I tell them, observing them closely to see what happens next. Nesia quickly understands how to drain the energy of her target, a significant trail of glowing green energy flowing from the tree and rushing towards her body. The energy surrounds her body, before getting absorbed and healing away some of the cuts on her body. As she looks at me for confirmation, I give her a thumbs-up. "Nice Giga Drain, Ness! Now that is how it's done." I nod, making her smile as I reach over to pat her head.

"It's so hard to do…" Lily grunts, seemingly trying her best to suck out the energy of the tree. "Ugh! I can see it now, but I can't grab it!" Dani groans, straining her own body to try and pull the energy out of the tree. In order to help them along, I sit down next to them as I observe their attempt. "Stop for a bit, alright?" I suggest, the both of them stopping to take a break as the plop down on the grass next to me. "Man, this is hard!" Dani huffs, while Lily's facial expression basically tells me the same story. "Okay, so try not to think about absorbing the energy of the tree. Instead, think of it as the power coming to you on its own. Let it come to you, instead of thinking about sucking it all up." I coax, Lily and Dani nodding before resuming their efforts. Sure enough, some wisps of energy starting to seep from the trunk of the trees that the two are focusing on.

"That's right! Keep thinking those thoughts, and keep focusing on that energy!" I encourage them, seeing the energy coming out of the trunks and heading towards the two Grass Types. "Good job, you two." Nesia cheers them on herself, having begun to watch them work from the side. The energy begins to flow in a larger amount, before all of it suddenly stops as it gets sucked into the bodies of Dani and Lily. "Woah! That feels tingly, and a bit weird." Dani shudders, Lily doing the same. "It feels ticklish, but not really at the same time." She comments, making me grin as I pat their heads. "Nicely done, you two! Keep that up, and you'll be able to leech the life out anyone who tries to fight you!" I grin, making Lily and Dani smile. "Yes! I did it!" Dani whoops for joy, while Lily smiles. "Thank you, Sir." She tells me, to which I nod.

"Don't take what I said literally, though. Leeching life out of anyone is bad for them, and you do not wanna see what something leeched to death looks like." I tell them, shuddering as recollection flashes in my mind. "What do you mean?" Nesia asks me, looking at me in confusion while Lily and Dani look a bit scared as to what I was referencing. "What's that supposed to mean?" Dani asks, making me shake my head. "Trust me, you do not wanna know that. Some things are better off not known." I reply, before leaving it at that. "Now, keep doing that, and you'll be able to use Giga Drain much faster. That'll help, especially in a fight. Keep up the good work, you three." I grin, getting the Grass Types to nod. "Got it!" Dani replies, getting back to training along with Nesia and Lily.

With that part of the way, I turn to look at Cleo. "Alright, then. Ready Cleo?" I ask her, the Mareep nodding in reply. "Yeah, Ah hear ya." She replies, to which I nod. "Good. Now, tell me what moves you know." I tell her, getting her to think about it for a bit. "Ah know Cotton Spore, Thunder Shock and Thunder Wave, an' that's just about it." She finally says after a little bit of thinking, making me nod. "Mm hm." I nod, which seems to make the Mareep a little embarrassed. "It ain't mah fault! Gramps never taught me anythin' else!" She defends herself, to which I nod and pat her head. "I know, Cleo. I never said I blamed ya, so don't get so defensive about it." I assure her, getting her to grin wryly at me. "Sorry about that, Jay. Ehehehe…" She chuckles sheepishly, averting her gaze from mine.

"Well, I think the best place to start is to teach you how to use Thunderbolt. It packs more of a punch than Thunder Shock, so I think it should work out for you." I suggest, Cleo nodding in agreement. "Ah suppose Ah do need a better type of attack. Alright, how do Ah use Thunderbolt?" She asks, to which I sit down next to her. "Charge up, like you're about to use Thunder Shock. However, I'll need you to charge the move for longer. Once you feel like that's enough power, let it go." I explain, the Mareep immediately starting to let electricity build up in her fleece. Some of the static charge accidentally jumps from her to my hand, making me yelp out in shock. "Sorry, Jay! You alright?" She asks, getting me to nod. "I'm fine. Just a random jolt, that's all." I grin, shaking off the bolt quickly. "If ya say so…" She sighs, before returning to the task of charging up her attack. I can already see her focusing hard, squinting at the ground that she's aiming at.

It takes her a while, but she eventually lets go of her charged up electricity. The bolt heads for the ground she was aiming at, before taking a sharp turn upwards and into the sky. "Did you mean to do that?" I ask her, confused as to what just happened. Hanging her head in shame, she shakes her head no. "Ah was aimin' at the ground. Ah didn't mean for it ta-" That was all she had time to say, before a larger bolt than what she had fired off struck the ground right in front of her with a loud boom. It left a smoking patch on the grass, and leaves us in shock. The rest of the team heard the sound of the impact of the bolt with the ground as well, just as shocked as we are. "What the heck was that?" Cleo asks out loud, confused as to what had just happened. "I think that was a Thunder, not a Thunderbolt Cleo." I answer her, staring in shock at the power of the move I had witnessed.

"Thunder?" She repeats, confused as to what I was implying. "Yup. That bolt you shot ended up becoming one of the most powerful Electric Types moves." I reply, to which she grins and jumps up in victory. "Heck yeah! Did ya'll see that!?" She whoops, Nesia nodding dumbly as she tries to come to terms with what she had saw. "That was so awesome! Great job, Cleo!" Alita yells back, Chell nodding in agreement. "That sounded so strong!" She adds, making the Mareep blush from the praise. "Aw, shucks. Ah appreciate the compliments, you two!" She calls back, while I smile at her. "Nice going, Cleo. Now, try doing that again and again. The more you use it, the more comfortable you'll be with it. That'll help you bring it down faster and harder." I tell her what to do next, Cleo nodding as she begins to charge up again.

"But before you do that, let me step away first. Or else, the result may be shocking." I chuckle, walking away from the Mareep. "Golly, that was terrible!" Cleo snorts, recognizing the use of another pun. "Really, though. Try not to kill me or the team, alright? It's hard to do stuff when I'm dead." I warn her, making her chuckle. "Got it. Ah'll try not ta shock ya too badly, Jay." She nods, before charging up another Thunder again, letting me see the electricity build up in her wool.

I then turn my attention to Katrina, who's currently resting up with Alita and having some casual chitchat amongst each other. Chell is already practicing her skills off to the side, slicing at a tree. "Heya, girls. Done resting up, or would you rather watch for a little longer?" I ask, to which Katrina and Alita get up in response to my question. "I'm ready!" Alita answers me, while Katrina gets her rear off the ground in a more graceful manner. "I am also done with relaxation for now. Let us continue." She nods, getting me to make the come hither motion with my hand. "Follow me then, ladies. Right this way." I instruct them in a suave tone, Katrina giggling as she walks alongside me. "Such a gentleman, Jay." She comments, while Alita simply groans. "Quit acting classy, idiot." She sighs, although her smile tells me that the joke was in good taste.

Once we get a little ways away from the rest of the group, I sit down on the ground before I tell them what to do. "Alright, you two. You're both really fast, but you're both not that good at taking hits. So, I think that it's time that the both of you get another move that has a use on top of attacking. Alita, I think you should learn Steel Wing. It has a chance of increasing your Defense against physical moves, and it does do good damage. In order to pull off Steel Wing, I'll need you to stiffen you wings in midair, so you'll glide. Then, imagine your wings getting harder in preparation to smack your target with them." I tell the Tranquill, running over how to use the move. "I got this, Jay." She smirks, taking off to find a tree to dish out some punishment on.

"Katrina, you should learn Shadow Ball. Not only is it a powerful Ghost Type move, but it can also lower the Special Defense of the opponent you hit it with. To use it, I'll need you to charge up energy like Shadow Claw, but in a ball on your tail. Then, when you have the energy built up, you can throw it." I explain, getting the feline to nod in reply. "I understand, Jay." She replies, already working on transferring ghostly energy to her tail. She seems to have gotten the hang of it as the ball slowly gets bigger than a speck, but the sphere of ethereal power dissolves into nothingness when it reaches the size of a golf ball. Huffing, Katrina stares at her tail in irritation. "It is much different than when I used my claws." She comments, making me chuckle as I give her a kiss on the forehead, seeing her blush.

"Don't worry, Kat. You'll get it down like you did with Sucker Punch. Just give it some time, yeah?" I soothe, getting her to smile as she nods. "I'll try harder then, Master~" She teases me in return, intentionally lifting her tail and shamelessly flaunting her assets in my face as she charges up her next Shadow Ball. And now I have a boner. Great. "I hate you." I mutter, making a mental note to punish her later.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 52

[Jay]

Since Chell's on her own agenda for now, that leaves me without much to do. As such, I decide to sit down under the tree that I had left my stuff under. It doesn't take me much time to figure out what I want to do, however. "Well, gotta keep myself in shape, right?" I shrug, standing up to do some basic strength training. Using the tree I was leaning on a second ago, I prop my legs against it in order to get some sit ups done. However, I only manage to get about ninety done before I finally give in to the demands of my muscles, leaving myself panting on the ground. Wasting no time, I move on to my arms, getting down on the ground to get some pushups done. I manage to do even less with my arms, barely finishing thirty before I fall back down onto the grass.

"Man, how does Yu do this every morning…" I grunt, heaving myself back up using my now tired arms. However, I don't decide to simply leave it at that. I repeat this process for few more times, finally stopping when I feel as if my muscles are burning up. Satisfied for now, I finally allow myself to sit back down on the grass and enjoy the cooling effects of the light breeze whizzing past my face. I simply sit there for a bit, recovering my strength as I shut my eyes to feel the wind in my face. I don't feel much better about myself, but it does feel as if I've done something.

However, I find the darkness that comes with closing your eyes to be quite boring, and I soon open them again and look around. I'm tired, but I'm not feeling like a nap just yet. Looking around the area, I see no signs of any of the team in trouble as of yet, to which I heave a sigh of relief. Good. No Bug Types wandering out of the forest to strike. Not yet, at least. I quickly set my sights on Chell, who's still busy slashing away at the tree she's chosen to attack.

She seems to be working on her skills with her scalchops, using her dual blades to cut and cleave at the tree in front of her. She's a mixture of horizontal, diagonal and vertical slicing, each one of her cuts executed a little slowly but precise nevertheless. She's pretty careful with her blades, wary of their durability and her own strength. She seems to be fine with her Razor Ice combo move, having not seen her break the sharp yet brittle weapons once.

As I think that, I suddenly hear a sound of breaking ice. Just as the sound hits my ears, I see Chell's blades snap off at the base. She was in the middle of performing a finishing downward blow, which promptly results in the shards of ice cutting into her cheek as she lands the hit. "Gah! Ow…" She hisses in pain as she feels the ice cuts small gashes across her face, raising a paw to feel the depth of the wounds she had inflicted on herself. She feels the gashes and looks at the blood on her paw, but she shakes it off and quickly tries to reform her icy blades in order to resume her training.

Seeing this, I quickly sigh as I reach into my backpack and pull out a Potion. She may be dead set on training, but there's no need to take it this far. "Hey, Chell. Do you mind if I talk to ya for a sec?" I ask the Dewott from my sitting position, to which she nods and quickly proceeds to walk on over to me. Sitting down next to me, she sighs as she relaxes next to me on the grass for now.

"Sure thing, Jay. What is it?" She asks to which I point to her cheek. "Your cheek's a little busted up, kid. Not to mention the fight you had with Ness really banged you up." I tell her, getting her to shake her head. "I feel fine, Mister Jay. It's really nothing to be worried about." She assures me with a smile, her argument failing miserably to convince me. She seems fine, but I'm still worried about her nonetheless.

"Nonsense, kiddo. Now, hold still and let me patch you up, alright? This won't take too long, I promise." I insist, getting closer to her as I try to convince her to let me help her out. Shaking her head, the Dewott gets up to leave. "I told you, Mister Jay. I'm strong enough to keep training, so there's no need to worry about me." She replies, getting me to put a hand on her shoulder gently in order to get her attention.

"Listen, kiddo. You may think that you're tough enough to handle a little pain, but I still care about you, alright? Ness, Dani and Lily can heal themselves with Giga Drain, but you can't. What if your cuts get infected, huh? It'll be a lot harder to work on improving if you've got that to worry about." I argue with her, to which she stops in her tracks and turns to look at me. She says nothing, but I can already tell from her uncertain gaze and faltering smile that she's already having some internal conflict with herself.

"Besides, you wouldn't only be making your life harder, but you'd also make me worry. What would I do if you got sick like that, huh? Seeing you hurt makes me hurt here too, ya know." I tell her, gesturing to my chest as she hears me out. "I… Okay, Mister Jay." When she finally speaks again, she sounds almost guilty as she quickly sits herself back down on the grass. "Now, I'll need you to hold still and close your eyes." I tell her, getting her to nod as she complies with what I want her to do for me.

I then get to work, spraying the healing liquid over the cuts on her cheek. The Potion does its job, speeding up the healing process of the wounds, as well as providing the added bonus of disinfecting them. It's the disinfection process that hurts, Chell wincing as soon as the liquid comes into contact with her cheek. Once I'm done with the cuts on her face, I quickly check around her body in order to find the rest of the damage dealt by the Leaf Storms that Nesia had undoubtedly thrown her way. I notice quite a few on her arms and paws, as well as some on her legs and torso. Not only that, Nesia's leaves had cut a little deeper than I'd like to see on Chell, which makes me wince. The damage that had been done to her was by no means small, which causes some concern as I look her over.

I opt to heal up Chell's paws and legs first, holding her left paw gently in my larger, less furry hand. I do see her blush slightly at the sudden contact, but I decide to ignore it for now as I get to work. Chell doesn't seem to mind the close contact despite her embarrassment, if her smile and occasional shy glances towards me are much to go by. "Man, Ness hits like a truck, huh? These cuts look painful, kiddo." I comment, making the Dewott smile at me, despite the slight sting that results from me spraying her cuts with the Potion. "Yeah. Those Leaf Storms she threw at me really hurt, you know." She replies, making me chuckle as she admits to the blatant power of her friend.

"Well, I did see Ness take some serious hits from your Razor Ice too, Chell. You did good, you two." I smile at her, making her smile in kind as she receives my praise. "Thanks, Jay. That means a lot." She smiles cutely, making me stroke her head and lightly scratch behind her ears. "God, you're cute Chell. How are you this adorable, huh kid?" I muse, to which I see her blush lightly in embarrassment. "You think I'm cute, Mister Jay?" She asks me, unsure if she had heard right.

"Yeah I do, kid. You and the others are all cute, in your own ways." I reply, making her smile, despite the blooming redness on her face as she looks away. Chuckling, I poke her nose in a playful gesture. "Don't let that heat you up too much, kid. I'm seeing more pink than blue right now." I grin, making her giggle. "I can't help it, though! Your compliments make me feel so happy, Mister Jay." She shoots back, making me roll my eyes as I move on to healing her other wounds, located on her torso.

"Uh huh. Now stop smiling for a second, alright? You're gonna stop my heart with all that cuteness you're giving off." I sigh, spraying the Potion onto the wounds onto the chest area of the now much happier Dewott. I have to lift up the fur on her chest in order to see the true extent of the damage, which leads me to accidentally uncover something that makes me stop for a second. I feel a nub of flesh on her chest area that I rub against by chance, eliciting a gasp from Chell as I brush my finger against it by accident. "Hey, Chell? What did I just feel under your fur?" I ask her, confused as to why she had gasped when I had uncovered that specific part of her.

Blushing a deeper red, the Dewott nervously twiddles her paw digits together as she tries to form the right words to tell me. "You touched my teat, Mister Jay…" She whispers to me, immediately causing my confusion to morph into embarrassment as I cough, quickly moving away from that certain area of her. "Oh. Oops. Sorry, kiddo. I'll uh, try to avoid doing that again." I quickly form an apology, Chell nodding as she averts her gaze from mine for now. I try to return to my work of healing her wounds, trying to not think about how I had quite literally groped my partner. However, the awkward silence that ensues is thick enough to feel. As such, I focus on my hands, intensely observing my every movement as I try not to embarrass Chell any further.

However, as embarrassing as the initial contact had been, it's Chell that starts off the talking anew. "You could touch me there again if you want to…" She mutters with her blush still on her face, making me blush deeper as she says so. "Kid, I appreciate the gesture, but you don't have to offer yourself to me if you don't want to." I tell her, gently declining her offer. "But Mister Jay, are you sure you don't want to?" She asks me again, making me cough as I pick up on her rather obvious and direct attempt to flirt with me.

"Listen, kiddo. It's not that I don't want to, but I need you to think this through. Do you want this? If not, then you don't have to force yourself to do things that you don't want to do." I explain to her, to which she interjects. "But Mister Jay, I don't mind if you do these things to me!" She protests, blushing as she lowers her voice to a whisper. "Even if we had sex… As long as you're the one doing it, I'm okay with it." She adds, making me sigh as I stroke her head with my now freed hand, having dressed all of her wounds with the Potion. I place the empty Potion bottle off to the side, making a note to throw it away later.

"I know you don't mind, but the humans do. They won't be as understanding when they realize that I've done things like that to you, Chell. They'll take you away, and then I won't ever be able to see you again. I can't lose you, kiddo." I explain, getting her to nod sadly as she hears what I have to say. "But if you ever feel like you'd rather be my mate than live a carefree life, then you can tell me. I just want you to think about this, alright?" I speak up, making her smile again as she nods. "Okay, Mister Jay." She replies, snuggling up to me as she lies in my lap.

We simply lay there together for a bit, enjoying the company of the other as I watch the clouds drift by. However, the occasional loud booming crackle of a Thunder being fired off makes me a little more aware of our positions right now. Nevertheless, Chell seems to be content, smiling as she looks up at me on occasion. I smile too, stroking her soft, furry midsection and hearing her sigh happily. It still really troubles me when it comes to Chell's affection towards me, though. Does this mean that she really does like me? If so, how will Katrina react to the possible addition of another member of the team into my intimate circle? However, my rogue thoughts are quickly interrupted by Chell. "I like being close to you, Mister Jay. It feels nice." She speaks up, making me chuckle as I rub her head this time around. Eh, maybe I'm over thinking this a little. I'll just think about the here and now.

"I like being around you too, Chell." I reply, before something clicks in my mind. "Chell, is Razor Ice hard to use for you right now?" I ask her, getting the Dewott to look at me in surprise. "It is a little hard to stop it from breaking all the time. Why'd you ask?" She replies, confused as to why I had asked her that. "Well, I've been thinking of a much better move for you to use. It's called X-Scissor, and it's a pretty strong Bug Type move when compared to Fury Cutter. It's also much easier to use, so I think you'll have a much better time dealing with Grass Types like Foongus and Amoongus in the forest." I explain, Chell nodding as she takes out her dual scalchops.

"Alright, so how do I do that?" She asks, to which I gesture to her blades first. "First, think about using Fury Cutter but in a cross pattern. Instead of simply lashing out immediately however, I want you to focus on your blades more and put more energy into them. When you see your blades glow a brighter green, that's when you strike by slicing outwards." I tell her, getting her to nod as she quickly crosses her blades atop each other to make the x-shaped pattern that is a staple in performing an X-Scissor. As she charges up, I can see that her blades are starting to glow a brighter shade of sickly green as she focuses on pouring more power into the strike.

As soon as the glow reaches an even deeper shade of sickly green, Chell immediately lets loose a cross slash with her blades, cutting a deep gash into the tree she was standing in front of. Whistling at the results, I pat Chell on the head. "Nice work, kiddo! That's how it's done right there. Now, I think you could use X-Scissor to add a finishing blow to your Fury Cutter, as it does take a bit to charge up. Or, you could use X-Scissor to follow up on a ranged move like your Water Pulse. Stunning them will result in a higher chance of landing the move, after all. But, you should still work on lowering the time it takes to use Fury Cutter, because that'll help you dish out more damage faster in the long run." I suggest, the Dewott nodding as she readies her blades and prepares to swing at the tree again. "Sure thing, Mister Jay!" She replies, returning to her practice. She works a bit harder with her Fury Cutter this time around, occasionally lobbing a Water Pulse and an X-Scissor at the tree she's hitting to enforce a mixture of ranged and melee attacking. Before I leave, however, Chell turns around to face me one last time.

"Mister Jay?" She calls out to me to get my attention. "Yeah, kiddo?" I ask, raising an eyebrow in her direction. "Thanks for caring about me so much." She thanks me, smiling happily as she expresses her gratitude. "You're welcome, kid. Now, hop to it. If ya work hard, we'll be able to cut through the competition in no time." I joke, making her giggle as she hears the pun I made. "I know, Mister Jay!" She reassures me, returning to her training as she cuts and slices at her tree.

Looking around the area, I can see that Dani and Lily are already getting the hang of using Giga Drain with Nesia's help, and Cleo is getting a little better with her Thunder aim. Even Katrina and Alita are getting better at their respective attacks, the feline's Shadow Ball now much more solid and spherical than before. Alita's Steel Wing attack practice is also coming along quite nicely, as I can see the metallic sheen of her wings now being slightly apparent. "Ack! God damn it!" Alita curses, having had her wing grazed by the tree. As soon as the Tranquill tries to do another bash against the tree, her wings suddenly lose their sheen and cause her to damage herself on the branches of the tree she was planning to hit. Guess I spoke too soon, huh?

"Oh, shit!" Alita yelps, already feeling herself take a sharp plunge towards the ground. Alita's wing looks to be slightly bruised, but she seems to be otherwise okay. However, she fails to stabilize herself in time and begins to make a sharp descent out of the air. Seeing her hurtle towards the ground at a frightening speed, I quickly run over to her general area. I reach out both of my arms to catch her, just barely able to stop her from barreling head first into the unforgiving dirt below. As soon as I feel her body in my grasp, I check up on her to see if she's okay. Finding no major damage to her body, I heave a sigh of relief as she opens her eyes.

"Whew, that was a close one. You alright there, Ali?" I ask the Tranquill, who immediately blushes a shade of red as she nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for the catch, Jay." She thanks me, although she tries to hide her red face by averting her gaze from mine. "Does your wing hurt really badly?" I ask her, poking at the wing that she had smacked the tree head on with. Sure enough, she winces and lets out a hiss as my finger connects with the flesh of her wing. "Ow! Geez, that hurt you idiot!" She huffs angrily, making me stroke her neck and head gently in response to her outburst.

"I know it does, and I'm sorry. I won't touch it until I'm done healing it for you, okay? Can you forgive me?" I plead with her, making her relent before dropping her angry façade just a little bit. "It's fine. Could you help me get my wing fixed now? It hurts like a bitch, ya know." She adds, still looking a little pissed at me. "Language, Ali. What if we get some younger Pokemon to join our team, huh? Do you seriously want kids cussing like you if we do?" I ask her, making her roll her eyes as she hears me out. "Well, kids will learn what curse word are, anyways! I'm just speeding up the process!" She replies, making me grin as I pet her head.

"Oh, Ali. Such a mother figure, aren't you? You're so concerned for the future of Pokemon right now. 'If we teach them to curse all the time, they'll be able to fend off any potential threats with words!' Yeah, that's so understanding of you." I joke as I poorly imitate her voice, making her sigh as she rolls her eyes. "You're such an idiot, Jay." She sighs, smiling all the while as I carry her back to the area of the rest of the team. "And you're not feather-light, either, Ali. Seriously, you need to lose some pounds. I won't be able to catch you if you keep putting on weight." I joke, initially assuming that she wouldn't take the poke at her weight so seriously.

However, I seem to have underestimated a rule of women that is universally true: Never, and I mean NEVER tell them that they're weighty. Otherwise, you're gonna get it real bad. Sure enough, Alita's voice turns dark as she speaks her next words, having flinched when she heard me say that. "What did you just say about me?" She growls, making me gulp at her sudden ferocity. "Uh, I said you were heavy?" I timidly squeak, making her glare daggers at me. "You asshole! Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep myself light!? No, you sure as hell do not! I fucking hate you!" She shouts, making me wince as she berates me with all the calm and grace of a raging tornado made of the flames of hell.

"Oh, oops. I'm sorry, Ali. I'll try not to make comments about that, okay?" I apologize as we approach the site of where I had placed my baggage down, although my words fall on deaf ears as she promptly ignores me. "As your Trainer and friend, I am very sorry that I have shamed you today. I can only hope you will find in it your heart to forgive me for this sinful act that I have committed." I up the ante, placing her onto the ground, and slamming my head into the ground in apology.

Seeing me suddenly bow down to her like she was a goddess, she sighs as she taps my head with her wing. "It's okay, you idiot. I forgive ya." She replies, making me look up at her hopefully. "You sure?" I ask, getting the bird to nod in response. "Yeah, I do. Now come on and help me get back to the others. I can't exactly fly, ya know." She sighs, gesturing to her bruised wing. "Right, then. Let's go, milady." I joke, making her bash her good wing against my head. "You're such an idiot, Jay." She huffs, making me grin. "But I'm your idiot, Ali. And I always will be there for you, whether to help you get better or to help you wing it out of tough spots." I joke, making her groan.

"See what I mean!? Your puns suck!" She berates me, although her smile makes her argument much less convincing. "And I like you too, Ali." I grin back at her, making her blush. "…You like me, huh?" She questions, repeating what I had said to herself. "Yup, I sure do. You're way too pretty and cute to not like, Ali. Besides, you're daring and fast too. What's not to like about you?" I grin at her, making her blush deeper as she hides her face in her wing.

"Flattery won't make me like you more, you dumbass." She mumbles, to which I simply smile at her. "I know, but it's fun to mess with ya every now and then." I reply, poking her breast area as she groans. "Why did I join you on your stupid adventure, Jay?"She asks herself more than me, getting me to shrug. "I dunno. I'm not you, after all. You tell me." I reply, to which she pokes my arm with her beak. "I wasn't asking you, you idiot." She rolls her eyes, making my smile turn into a cheeky grin.

We share casual banter as I patch her up near where the others are training, before I suddenly feel the telltale growling of my own stomach. Hearing my stomach growling, Alita laughs at me as I roll my eyes. "You're so mature, aren't you?" I sigh with an embarrassed blush, making her laugh harder. "I'm sorry Jay, but your face! It's way too funny to-" Is all she got to say in her defense, before her own stomach lets loose a growl as well. Her own face flushes red this time, making me laugh at her in kind. "You're right, Alita. That is pretty funny." I snicker, making her huff.

"Oh shut up, you idiot!" She groans, smiling as I tease her in kind. Getting up, I carry Alita in my arms in order to let her wing rest up for a bit. "Attention, team! Does anyone feel like some lunch?" I ask the group, who all share a nod. "Lunch sounds good ta me, Jay! Ah'm famished!" Cleo nods, quickly running over to my side in order to follow me for lunch. "I want some lunch, Sir!" Lily nods her approval as well, Dani floating over to me as well. "Heck yeah! I dopn;t know if you;ve noticed, but tree energy isn't equal to food." She states, while Katrina walk on over to us.

"I would also like to get some food. I am starving, mind you." She adds, to which I acknowledge. "Alright, that seems to be a unanimous vote here. Let's go, team! Onwards to lunch!" I declares, seeing everyone all ready to eat. Well, everyone save for Chell that is. She's still slashing viciously at the tree she's decided to practice her combo moves on, seemingly unaware that I had just told everyone to go on a lunch break. "Uh, Chell? You want to go for lunch?" I ask the Dewott, who finally looks my way as I shout the question out to her a little louder. "No thanks, Mister Jay. I'm fine." She replies, preparing to swing at the tree again…

Before the growling of her stomach shuts her up, negating her previous argument and leaving a bright blush on her face. Chuckling, I walk on over to the Dewott and hold her by the paw. "Come on, kid. It isn't that early anymore. It's one in the afternoon, and we've been here for a while now. I say, we go get some lunch. Sound good to you?" I ask, Chell nodding as she holds my hand, a smile on her face now. "Sure thing, Mister Jay." She nods, although her blush still remains on her face.

As we walk into town to find some food, Katrina suddenly uses her tail to grab a hold of my other hand as well. "Feeling intimate today, huh Kat?" I tease the feline, who smiles in return. "It's only natural for a Pokemon to want to be close to their mate. This is also true for humans, is it not?" She retorts, making me chuckle. "I suppose so, yeah." I reply, before I hear Chell speak up next to me. "Mate? Mister Jay, what does that mean?" She asks me, to which Katrina and I blush deeply. Looking to the feline, I see her nod as I divert my eyes to Chell for a second, and then back to her. Welp, the cat's out of the bag. No use in hiding it now, huh?

Turning to face the Dewott, I look her seriously in the eyes. "Now, kiddo. A mate means that Kat's already done the deed with me, if you catch my drift." I explain, to which Chell looks at me in confusion for a second, before her face heats up in a flash. "Wait, so you and Katrina have already had sex?" She asks me timidly and worriedly, making me nod. "Well, I hadn't expected to tell you this soon, but yes, we have." Katrina adds, making Chell's expression cloud over as she abruptly releases my hand.

"So, does this mean that you rejected me because you don't love me? Because… because Katrina is better than me?" Chell mutters, already letting me see the sadness in her eyes. I immediately grow concerned for her, and I begin to explain. "No, kiddo. It doesn't mean that I don't love ya. It's just that…" I trail off, unable to finish my sentence. Katrina doesn't seem to be able to salvage the situation in any way either, having not said a word to calm Chell down.

"Then what is it, Mister Jay? Why did you reject me for her? Am I not special to you? Do you tell me to think about it, just so you could stay with Katrina? Did you lie when you said you cared about me?" Chell sniffs, tears forming in her eyes as I shake my head frantically. "No, kid! It's not like that at all! I just wanted you to think about what you were getting yourself into." I reply, getting her to stop. However, she quickly composes herself as she looks away from the both of us, her expression now a mix of coldness and sorrow. She's hurting real bad inside, alright. "I'm going to walk with the rest of the team, Jay. Don't try and talk to me." She replies, all friendliness gone from her tone of voice.

"Chell, wait-" I start, before she cuts me off. "I'm sorry, Jay. I need time to think about this. About what you said." She replies sadly, walking off to join the larger group of girls ahead of us. Sighing, I look to Katrina. "Well, this sucks. I guess this is the only way things are gonna be right now, huh?" I sigh, Katrina nodding as she mirrors my concerned expression for the now saddened Dewott. "I'm sorry, Jay. If I had not come onto you like I did, Chell would not be so angry about it right now." She apologizes, to which I shake my head. "It's not your fault, Kat. I shouldn't have mislead her like that." I guess only time will tell if she still wants anything to do with me, huh?


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53

[Jay]

After we had our lunch in the confines of the town, we decide to train for a while longer to hone our skills. Well, I was taking a nap as the girls trained, but that's not important. Once they got their moves down reliably, we stocked up on Potions and Antidotes before finally setting off towards the outskirts of Pinwheel Forest anew. Our previous training seems to have instilled a sense of confidence in the rest of the team, as they walk alongside me down the dirt path that leads directly into the forest. Chell still hasn't made any attempt to talk to me, as whenever I even so much as look in her general direction, she simply turns away to avert her gaze from mine. She's had this air of contemplation and sadness about her ever since we had that little falling out, and I'm starting to get worried.

"This time, we'll get through that dumbass forest for sure!" Dani declares, Alita flying in the air alongside her Cottonee friend. "Hell yeah, we will! We'll kick the ass off of any bugs that so much as get close to us!" She crows confidently, making me chuckle as I shake my head. "Now now, you two. Don't get too cocky, alright? You've still gotta be careful of those Venipede. Not to mention that those Foongus and Ammongus kind of make it harder to stay safe in there." I remind them, making sure that they aren't getting too far ahead of themselves. "Jay has a point, you know. You shouldn't be so arrogant…" Lily seconds my opinion, making Dani look at her friend with a saddened expression. Although, I can already tell that her frown is fake.

"Oh come on, Lily! Don't tell me that you don't believe in me, after what we learned earlier!" She pouts, Alita quickly understanding what she's aiming for and deciding to join in on the fun. "Yeah, Lily! I can't believe you have such little faith in our skills!" She huffs, faking her angered expression as Lily starts to panic. "N-no, that's not what I meant! I-I mean, your skills aren't that bad, but…but…!" She stutters, making Alita and Dani laugh as she forms her shaky response.

"Nah, I'm just messing with ya Lily. I know you don't doubt us, and I'm pretty sure that you know that you can depend on us too." Dani smirks, making ALita snicker as she sees Lily's initial confusion. "But your face, though! The way you panicked was really funny!" She laughs out loud, making Lily huff at the two for tricking her. "You two are so mean!" She pouts, while I sigh and pat her head. "Unfortunately, there isn't much that we can do about that, Lily. They're just so mean…" I tut, making Dani huff my way. "Lily, that's not fair! You can't ask Jay for help!" She frowns, Lily sounding off a 'hmph' as she clings to my leg.

"You decided to ask Alita for help, so why can't I? It's fair, right Sir?" She retorts, turning to me for backup. Well, no sense in leaving her to fight this war on her own, huh? "Yeah, it's fair. Two on one isn't fair, but two on two makes the game more even." I add, Lily smiling in thanks as the Alita huffs. "You're such a buzzkill, Jay." She sighs, while I grin. "And you're already beak-ginning to understand the fun in torment-wing others. I'm so ashamed of you, Ali." I shake my head, making Alita groan. "Golly, those were so bad!" Cleo snickers, adding to the laughter in the air. This doesn't help to quell Alita's general disdain towards my jokes, though.

"Seriously!? Again with the puns, you idiot? God damn it!" She curses, making Dani and I snicker as she fumes at my poor sense of humor. "Looks like I've turned the tables on a certain Tranquill, and Lily appears to be much happier that the teasing isn't being inflicted on her anymore. "Thank you for helping, Sir." She thanks me, getting me to smile in kind and pat her head. "Not a problem, Lily. Just let me know whenever someone's picking on ya, and I'll make sure that they regret it." I reply, seeing her giggle as I ruffle her leaves. Nevertheless, the light banter that we share does make for a good indication that they're more confident about heading off into the forest.

Nesia is also looking more confident in herself than she was this morning, having learned Giga Drain to rejuvenate herself in the middle of a fight. "Ah've got a better feelin' about this now, Jay." Cleo adds, making me smile and nod as she speaks up. "Well, with that powerful Thunder attack you can use on our side, I'd be surprised if you weren't feeling better about this, Cleo. Your aim's been getting better with that move, too." I reply, making her blush in embarrassment as she hears me praise her. "Aw shucks, Jay. That ain't somethin' ta be praisin' little ol' me over. Electric attacks are sumthin' that Mareep learn mighty fast." She shrugs off the compliment, but I can already see the goofy smile forming on her face as she hears me praise her.

"Eh, you like the praise. Come on, you're smiling." I poke her cheek, making her giggle as she waves a limb in order to fend off the intruding digit. "Quit it, consarn it!" She snorts, making me chuckle as she smacks my finger away. "Hm, let me think about that for a sec…" I fake a pondering expression, before I shrug. "Eh, nah. Don't feel like stopping, Cleo." I grin cheekily, poking her cheek again as she groans. "God darn it, Jay! Quit it!" She giggles, making me laugh as well. I faintly notice Chell staring at me out of the corner of my eye, but she quickly averts her gaze from me. Guess she's still thinking about what had happened earlier, huh?

Meanwhile, I see Katrina also approaching me from a distance. She then proceeds to wrap her tail around my hand again, just like she did yesterday. However, the look she has on her face isn't one of playfulness, nor is it one of longing. Instead, her expression shows no small amount of regret and guilt as she looks at Chell, who's currently trying to distract herself with the sights and sounds around her. She isn't doing a very good job of it however, as she keeps trying to sneak glances at me. I wonder what she's thinking about right now. Heh, maybe she's thinking about how much of an asshole I am, for tricking her like that…

Katrina's sigh quickly snaps me out of my currently self loathing thoughts, making me look at her and see the worry etched on her face. "She really has not decided to forgive us, has she not?" She asks me, although from her tone of voice it is clear that she already knows the answer to her own question. "Yeah, it does seem that way for now. I really think I should have told her about us sooner." I let out a sigh, Katrina following suit. "I agree. I am not sure if she is jealous, or if she is simply sulking due to her discovery." Katrina nods, getting me to take a look at the Dewott. She isn't looking like she's sulking, but her expression doesn't give me much indication of anything. When she wants to she can be really secretive of her emotions, huh?

"I feel quite guilty of the way the situation has played out. I feel as if it is my fault, to a rather large extent." Katrina frowns, her concern for her Dewott friend just as prevalent as my own. "Your fault or not, there's nothing we can do about this. All we can do is see what choice Chell ends up making. I just hope she forgive us." I reply, before I realize that I haven't asked Katrina something yet. "Hey, Kat. I've been wanting to ask, would you be okay if you weren't the only one to claim me as your mate? What if the others want in as well?" I ask, to which she hears me out.

"You may be right, Jay. The others may just as well want to be mated to you as well." She admits, getting me to nod. "From my encounters with Chell, this might not be as farfetched as you think. So, would you be okay with sharing?" I ask her, making her blush as she mulls over the idea for a while. "Well, I suppose I could come to a reasonable agreement if it ever comes to that." She nods, before she looks at me seriously.

"However, if you treat me with less love, then I will be very upset. I may even have to go so far as to castrate you, Master." She smiles darkly, unsheathing her claws for emphasis and making me nod hurriedly, fearful for my own private parts. "Okay, okay. I get the idea. As long as I love you as much as I have before, you'll be okay if I get shared around, right?" I repeat what she had just said, making her nod as her usual smile appears on her face again. "Also on a side note, I would not mind having a shared effort to please you if any of the other girls are interested." She teases me, winking and heading off with the rest of the girls and leaving me with a few less than pure thoughts. "…That might be really hot, to be honest." I mutter to myself.

Finally arriving at the entrance to Pinwheel Forest, I turn around and address the team once more. "So, does everyone feel like they're ready to head in now?" I ask, Alita the first to nod as she looks at me with confidence. "Hell yeah, I'm ready! Let's finally get through this damn forest already!" She replies, Dani and Chell nodding their agreements as Dani floats up next to Alita. Chell remains silent, still not willing to make eye contact with me at all. "We've gotta do this sooner or later, so I prefer sooner. Let's go!" She adds, Nesia nodding as she looks at the trees. She then looks to me, allowing me to see the full extent of the desire to climb those trees.

"I want to climb trees again, Master." She tells me, hugging the leg of my pants tightly as her eyes burn with the need to scale the bark and leap across the branches of the trees before her eyes. "I know, Ness. You'll get to do just that in a minute." I reply, Katrina speaking up this time. "I feel prepared enough to continue. Let us be off." She replies, Cleo nodding along with the feline. "Ah'm sure ready to head on in!" She adds, Lily also pitching in with a determined, albeit shaky voice. "I'm not too sure about this, but I'll do my best!" She nods to me, making me smile at her as well. "Alright, that sounds like a yes to me. Let's go in, girls." I speak up, walking into the unknown path of Pinwheel Forest along with the team. I can only hope that the trip through this place will be smooth.

Five minutes later…

I am starting to think that the Scolipede threat that Joey's grandfather had described to me to be a little fake. I mean, we haven't even seen a single Scolipede in the past five minutes. Weren't they supposed to be extra aggressive these days? If so, then they should be storming through here by now, not letting us stroll past the trees like we're on some kind of tour. This is good, but at the same time the silence of the woods is extremely unsettling. "Seriously? Where the hell are the Scolipede? Jay, didn't that old man tell us they were supposed to be really angry or something? Why aren't they attacking us?" Alita asks me, unsure that what I had said was true or not.

"To be honest I'm a bit confused myself, Ali. I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't lie to us. He seemed like a trustworthy guy to me." I shrug, although I'm secretly glad that we have a lack of big, bad Bug Types to battle. "Ah'm actually not too sure that no Scolipede is a bad thing, Ali." Cleo speaks up, Lily nodding to show her agreement. "At least they're not bothering us right now, so we can relax a little longer." She adds. It doesn't really take a genius to figure out that they feel the same way I do about the distinct lack of Scolipede. However, Alita seems to think otherwise.

"Well, I'm bored! I wanna kick the shit outta something already!" She groans, already wanting to throw down with some Bug Types. "Eh, I don't really think that not having to deal with Scolipede is a bad thing, Ali. Take it easy." Dani, despite lacking shoulders of any kind, manages to convey her version of a shrug. Nesia has already taken to the trees, the only indication of her being there are the sounds of the leaves rustling and the occasional Vine Whip used to propel herself from one tree to the other.

However, the tension between me and a certain Dewott is still thick enough to cut through with a knife. Chell has her scalchops at the ready, and she's taking a look around herself and the rest of the team. She's wary of any movement, save for the rustling of leaves overhead. Katrina is also keeping her distance from her, making sure not to enter her field of vision and provoke her further. Chell does make occasional conversation with the others, but she doesn't ever join in whenever they talk about me in any way. The resulting awkward tension is incredibly unbearable, and makes me regret ever forcing this wedge between our friendship.

I don't get to dwell on these thoughts for long, as the sudden hissing sounds and the scuttling of appendages on bark stops us all in our tracks. "W-what was that?" Lily yelps, quickly clinging onto my leg for comfort. "Stay sharp, everyone. That's most likely a Venipede." I reply, moving with a lot more caution as we continue moving along the dirt path. Chell in particular is a lot more tense, having already charged her scalchops in preparation to unleash a Fury Cutter should the need arise. Dani and Lily are huddled close together, Dani raising her leafy appendages in a defensive stance to protect the Petilil behind her. Cleo charges up electricity in her wool, allowing some sparks to fly off her coat by accident as she surveys the area to our left. Katrina readies a Shadow Ball on the top of her tail, the sphere of ghostly power shimmering in the faint light from the gaps between the leaves of the trees as she observes the area to our right. The rustling overhead has also lowered in volume, indicating that Nesia is also looking around for any sign of Bug Types.

The scuttling and hissing seems to close in on us as we slowly walk along, all of us now fully aware of the multiple sets of yellow eyes starting right back at us. Welp, at least we know Joey's grandpa wasn't lying. "T-there's so many of them…" Lily stutters, quivering like a leaf as she clings to me for dear life. "I think I'll just stay in here. Feels much safer than the outside." Dani quickly agrees, both of them immediately hiding inside my hoodie for comfort and protection. I don't mind, though. It doesn't feel much different in the hoodie with them inside, anyhow.

The rest of the girls are busy staring back at the multitude of eyes as they stare back, each one with the typical yet terrifying territorial aggression that the Venipede line are known for. I debate whether to simply fight, or to tell the team to turn tail and run. "This ain't lookin' too good, gang." Cleo gulps nervously, Alita sharing a worried glance with her friend. "I'll say. Geez, that's a lot of bugs…" She adds, maing me even more nervous. "This is bad! So very bad!" I hear Lily squeak from the confines of my hoodie, Dani shivering just as much as her fellow Grass Type.

"Come on, you bastards! Come out and fight us! Or are you scared!?" Alita yells, trying her best to sound intimidating despite being hopelessly outnumbered. A few seconds later, the eyes vanish from the black holes in the bushes. "Ha! Looks like they're all bark and no bite! One simple threat and they just crawled off!" Alita crows, everyone relaxing their stances for a split second. Just as she says that, the second of silence is quickly interrupted, caused by the pitter patter of an innumerable number of Venipede feet on the ground as they come out of their hiding spots in the bushes and attack from all sides. With their fangs outstretched, they seem ready to fight. "Ya sure about that, Alita? They look more bite than bark ta me." Cleo deadpans, making Alita gulp in turn out of fear this time. "Me and my big mouth!" Alita yelps, making me sigh as they close in on us. "Come on, team! It's now or never!" I yell, both sides getting ready to throw down and duke it out to the end.

Luckily for us, it never does come to that. "Wait!" A sudden voice sounds out from the middle of the seething mass of purple bodies and yellow eyes. "Wait, what?" I ask out loud, the horde stopping to look at the source of the voice as numerous sets of beady eyes look in the direction of the commanding tone. Looking in that direction, I can see a Venipede that looks really familiar, with a very specific set of gashes across its carapace. The cuts are fading away, but are still somewhat visible nevertheless. The Venipede stops in front of me, examining my features. After a bit of observation, it comes to a conclusion as it gasps. "It's him! Keep him boxed in!" The Bug Type commands, making the others slowly and reluctantly back away from our position.

"Excuse me, but have we met? I think I've seen you somewhere before." I ask the Venipede who's talking, who looks to me with that usual glare that their species share. "We have, human. I'm the one you saved at the edge of the forest yesterday." It nods, before another Venipede, a bigger and meaner looking one at that, hisses threateningly at me. "You will not treat our alpha's daughter with such a casual tone, human filth!" It spits harshly at me and makes me nod quickly, fearful of my own life.

"Okay, okay. I won't do that ever again." I promise, before I stop to think about what the bug had just said. Alpha's Daughter? Wait. The sudden understanding of the words of this particular Venipede makes me stare slack jawed at the very same one that had stopped my imminent death by deadly poisons. Wait, what? I saved their leader's daughter!? And judging by the expressions of disbelief the others are showing right now, they seem to be just as surprised as I am.

"Oh uh, sorry Miss. I honestly didn't mean to offend you or anything…" I chuckle nervously, making the Venipede stare incredulously at me before bursting out into laughter. "…I don't get what's so funny." I speak up, to which the Venipede calms herself down before answering my question. "Sorry, it's just that you humans are so funny when you're scared for your life! God, that face of fear you have is so damn hilarious!" She giggles lightly, before crawling over to me. It hasn't been long since we've met, but I can already tell that this particular Venipede is seriously gonna grind my gears.

"Anyways, you don't have to treat me like royalty. That doesn't really matter to me all that much. As you may already know, I lead these guys you see here." She nods to the Venipede, who stare at me like they want to tear me apart. "Uh, could you tell them to stop looking at me like that? It's really scaring the crap outta me." I suggest, making the Venipede look at me in confusion. "I don't get what you mean. We always look like this, whether if we look at each other or at other things. Now, follow me." She replies, her group leading the way and allowing us to follow closely behind. The Bug Types form a ring around us, encircling us while moving in sync to keep me from leaving the circle. To test them, I edge too close to one of the sides, resulting in the Venipede hissing and snapping their mandibles at me in order to herd me back into the center of the ring. Meanwhile, the words of the swarm leader Venipede allow me to recall what I had learned in Trainer School. I remember that Venipede do simply look that way, despite what we're normally lead to believe that they're angry all the time.

"Oh. Never mind, then. So, is there any reason as to why you haven't murdered us yet?" I ask her as I follow her, as if this was a completely normal thing to talking about. The team still remains tense, which is completely understandable seeing as we're surrounded on all sides by bloodthirsty insects. "Hey Ness, you can come down now." I call out to the Servine, still aware of her presence in the trees above. In response, Nesia uses her vines to prop herself back onto my shoulder, preferring the high ground for now. "But why, Master? Shouldn't I remain hidden?" She asks, to which Katrina nods in agreement. "I agree with Nesia. She should be our secret escape option, just in case things go south." She adds, to which I shake my head.

"No, you two. We're being captured and taken to God knows where, so I suppose we should play along for now. I'm pretty sure that whoever wants to see us doesn't like surprises, and we should try and gain their trust." I explain, making the two nod before they warily refocus their glances at the Venipede around us. "Are there any more of you?" The Venipede asks me, to which I shake my head in reply. "No, ma'am. That's all of us." I reply, Alita finally finding her voice again. "Jay! What the hell did you do this time!?" Alita yells in my ear, interrupting my conversation and alerting the attention of the swarm leader.

"To be honest with you, I dunno. I helped her so she could get back to her group, but that's about it." I shrug, while the Venipede looks at Alita with interest. "Wow, so you caught a Tranquill?" She marvels, looking at Alita with interest and… is that hunger!? "No, she came with me of her own free will. Why'd you ask? Don't you see Tranquill around here anymore?" I ask her, curious as to why she would ask this out of the blue, and to make some casual conversation while I'm at it.

"It's not much. We ate all the Tranquill in the area, so their flocks never even come close to our forest to roost anymore. I liked the taste of Tranquill, so my dad let me lead groups of Venipede at a time to hunt and eat them whenever I wanted." She says nonchalantly, before eyeing Alita again. Wait, what!?" The Tranquill in question gulps as she looks extremely frightened now, to which I hold her close to my arms in a protective gesture. "Uh, no. She isn't for consumption, Miss." I try to ward her off, making her sigh.

"Fine. I was about to ask if you were okay with letting me eat her, but I get it. If she came with you willingly, then I suppose you'd care about her enough to protect her." She replies, making both Alita and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Shit, that was close." Alita sighs, making me nod as I point to my TBA. "You could stay in here if you want to, Ali. No sense in risking getting eaten, after all." I suggest, getting her to shake her head. "No thanks, Jay. I'd rather stay out here." She declines my offer, before blushing a bit. "I want to protect you as well." She adds, making me chuckle.

"Alright, then. Your call, birdbrain." I grin, making her slap me over the head with her wing. "Ugh, I thought we were past that dumb nickname! I take back what I said, you idiot!" She groans, making me shrug. "Eh, you know me. No nickname is too dumb, nor is any pun too cringe worthy for me to not use." I shoot back, making her sigh in annoyance despite our situation. "Master is so laid back, it's scary." Nesia rolls her eyes with a smile of her own, also sharing in some of the humor that I've managed to forge. "Honestly Jay, must you always make light of the situation?" Katrina sighs, but her smile is a clear indication that she doesn't really mind. Even Chell cracks a smile past her stony expression, as faint and fleeting as that smile was.

"Anyways, where are we going exactly?" I ask the swarm leader again, getting her to look at me with an unreadable expression. "Well, since you're the human that saved me, my dad wants to talk to you. But past that, I have no idea what he wants from you." She explains, not allowing herself to reveal the nature of the situation any further. Judging from her expression however, I can already tell that whatever her dad has in store for me, it can't be good.

"So, I suppose you could say that you dad was a little bugged by the fact that I had helped you?" I joke, making the Venipede look at me in slight irritation. "Seriously, human? Joking at a time like this?" She deadpans, to which I grin. "Well, no use in worrying about it now, eh? I'll worry about it when I get there." I reply, making her look at me in surprise before sighing in defeat. "You are way too positive for your own good, human." She adds, getting me to chuckle. "As my parents used to tell me, I will never learn." I shoot back, making her giggle. "God, you're dumb!" She throws the insult at me, only for me to shake it off with a smile. Alita shakes her head and sighs, slapping me upside the head with her wing. "You idiot." She mutters, while Nesia and Katrina smile at the attempts of humor that I'm making.

Dani however, is not amused. "How are you cracking jokes at a time like this!? We might end up getting eaten, or worse!" Dani pokes her head out of my hoodie as she reminds me of our current situation, Lily agreeing with her friend's grim outlook. "I'm scared, Sir…" She meekly whispers to me while hiding inside my hoodie, to which I nod and pat their heads comfortingly. "I know you're scared. Hell, I am too. But, might as well see where this goes. Besides, you can be sure that we'll protect you, no matter how bad things get." I try to comfort her, Cleo nodding her confirmation of my statement.

"You betcha! We'll make sure these bugs don't hurt any bit 'a ya." She reassures the two Grass Types, making Nesia nod indetermination as well. "We'll make sure you don't get hurt." She adds, getting Dani to smile shakily at us. "Right. Thanks, guys. I needed that." She thanks me, Lily peeking her head out of my hoodie as she smiles our way. "Thank you, everyone." She replies, getting me to smile back at her. "No problem, Lily." I reply, before the swarm leader grabs my attention with her voice. Looking at where we've stopped, we seem to have reached a line of bushes.

"We're here. Now stay close to me, human. If you wander too far from me, the other Scolipede might attack you. You also should be careful not to step on any of us when you walk." She warns us, making me nod as we follow her past the brush line which leads to a clearing. The area is littered with Scolipede and Venipede, most of them tending to their own young or sleeping in their respective nests. The nests seem to be composed of rocks and branches of fallen trees, where eggs can be seen in some, and bones can be seen in others. "That is a lot of bones." Nesia whispers to me, getting me to nod. "Ah'll say. That makes 'em all the more scary." Cleo adds.

The second my team and our escort walk into the clearing, all of the Scolipede turn to look at us, their eyes narrowed in hostility as multiple horned heads follow me, watching my every move intensely. I gulp, already not liking my chances of survival. The team isn't faring much better, all of them tense. However, due to the presence of the swarm leader Venipede guiding me through their nesting ground, they more or less seem to leave us alone. Even the occasional Scolipede that approaches us simply sizes us up, before making a sound not unlike a mix of a grunt and a click before leaving. Eventually, we reach a large cave at the edge of the clearing.

"This is it, everyone. My parents live in here, so I suggest you show some respect when you meet him." The Venipede warns me, getting me to nod. Seeing my agreement, she calls out into the darkness of the cave. "Dad! I've found the human! He can understand us!" She shouts, getting a deep growl in reply that sends a shiver up my spine. That growl is one that simply demands authority, and tells me that whoever is in there is not to be trifled with. "Go in." She tells me, making me sweat bullets as the team and I step past the cave entrance and head on inside…


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter 54

[Jay]

Scolipede are well known for their brutality, and they do things that could leave even a Hydregion retching. Ever heard of brutally murdering their rivals and eating them to be commonplace among male Scolipede? Or the fact that they tend to eat damn near anything and everything that they can Bulldoze over? Yeah, that description alone already paints these massive lumbering killing machines in a bad light, and not to mention the multiple disappearances of Trainers around the area of Pinwheel Forest, simply because they didn't follow the simple rule of entering the forest area at the right time. New Trainers simply don't have the skill or the power to deal with these powerful Pokemon, and their cheerful adventure is sadly cut short as they and their partners become nothing more than a regional wildlife death statistic.

So, for me and the team to see a group of these things in the flesh already has my heart racing. Imagine my utter shock when I see a Scolipede larger than all of the ones I had encountered outside, and with an array of scars across its abdomen and neck. As soon as I enter, I can feel a powerful glare being sent my way, the sensation of being in the presence of a powerful being really shaking me to my core. However, seeing the large Scolipede glaring at me only serves to compound my fear, damn near giving me a heart attack simply by being in its presence.

"Ah, hell. This ain't lookin' too good." Cleo whispers to me, while Alita gulps. "Not good? This is really bad!" She hisses, making me even more nervous. "They're right. This looks bad." Nesia whispers in my ear, trying to make herself scarce by hiding behind my head. Katrina and Chell are looking extremely tense, while Dani and Lily have turned my hoodie into a vibrating vest. "Just calm down, okay? It might not be as bad as it seems." I reply, trying to calm the team down. However, I am just as scared myself when it comes o the matter of facing down such a powerful creature.

"Human. You are the one who helped my daughter, correct?" He asks me, his voice deep and grating as he addresses me. "Yeah, that's me." I nod, deciding not to ask my own questions for now. He doesn't seem all that reasonable, as his demeanor doesn't exactly scream negotiable. Seeing my response, the Scolipede's gaze softens a little bit, although he still sends his glare my way. "Well, I suppose I should thank you for what you did the other day. Although, hearing that my daughter had been saved by a human of all things really caught me by surprise." He says dismissively, getting me to sigh in relief. Well, at least he isn't going to murder me outright.

"Quick question. Why did you bring me here?" I ask him, to which he sighs and looks away. "It wasn't my idea, it was hers. I didn't want to have anything to do with you to begin with." He grumbles as he uses his head to gesture to his mate, who looks to me with a much kinder gaze than he did. "Hello, human." She addresses me with a lot less bite in her tone that the alpha did as she walks over to me. "Hello, Ma'am." I reply, trying not to offend her in any way. "I believe I have you to thank for bringing my daughter home safe and sound." She continues and nods her head in gratitude, making me shake my head in reply.

"There's no need to thank me. I was just doing what I thought was right." I reply, to which she giggles upon hearing my answer. "You're quite humble, aren't you human?" She compliments me, getting me to shrug in light of her praise. "Well, I do get that a lot." I reply, seeing her walk towards the cave entrance. "Follow me, human. There is something I wish to discuss with you." She speaks up, to which I nod and follow her past the confines of the cave.

Once we leave the cave, the Venipede that had escorted us here greets her mother. "Hi, Mom!" She greets her mother with a series of happy clicking sounds, getting the large Scolipede to make a happy click in return. "Hello, my child." She greets her child, who promptly nuzzles her mother, making the Scolipede nuzzle her daughter back and displaying to me the cutest display of affection that a large, venomous bug could give. Hell, I hadn't thought that this affection between members of a group could be shown amongst this evolutionary line.

"So cute…" I hear Nesia whisper to me, getting Cleo to voice her agreement. "Ah'll say. Those two are too darn cute." She agrees, getting me to nod. "Simply adorable." I reply, smiling as the two Bug Types finish nuzzling the other. As soon as they're finished with their display of affection, the Venipede takes to riding her mother, swiftly climbing up the Scolipede's carapace and settling atop her head for comfort. "I love you, Mom." She sighs peacefully, while the mother smiles in return. "I love you too, little one." She soothes, and hums a soft tune while she begins to sway her head gently from side to side. The Venipede's eyes close quickly as her breathing slows, signifying her descent into the world of sleep.

Once her daughter falls asleep, the Scolipede then turns to look at me again. "Well, I guess there are exceptions to every rule, huh?" I decide to comment on what I had just seen earlier, getting the Scolipede to nod in agreement. "I agree. I had honestly never expected a human to save my daughter. However, that just proves that the world is full of wonder, does it not?" She replies, getting me to smile at her in thanks.

"If only there were more humans that thought the way you do, Miss. Most of us humans are busy looking after themselves, and fighting each other to care. We're way too selfish to see the beauty of things around us, so we don't really appreciate stuff like that. It makes me feel like I'm the weird one for wanting to help other people out." I sigh, to which the Scolipede sighs as well. "I understand, human. I really care about my other swarm members, but everyone else believes that we should leave weakened individuals to die off in order to strengthen the pack. I honestly think it's quite the farfetched notion." She speaks her mind, making me nod as I hear her out. Guess this issue isn't just a human thing, huh?

"Anyways, you mentioned that you had something you wanted to talk to me about. What was it?" I ask her, the large millipede Pokemon gesturing to the nesting grounds before our eyes. "Well, you may have already noticed that some of our nests are vacant." She replies, getting me to raise an eyebrow as I look around. Now that she brings it up, I do realize that some of the nests are empty. While some of the nests have one, or even two Scolipede nestling within along with their young, I can see that some of the pits are barren in comparison.

"She's right." Nesia speaks up, realizing just how true the Scolipede's statement was. "Now that ya mention it, this place does look mighty empty." Cleo adds, looking around to confirm what she had heard. "I see. So it is safe to assume that some members of the swarm left, is it not?" Katrina asks the Scolipede, who shakes her head. "No. They didn't leave on their own, because they were forcefully taken from their nests." She explains, getting the rest of us to look at her in shock.

"Wait, what? How did they get taken away? Aren't Scolipede supposed to be really freaking tough or something?" Alita asks, shocked as to how on earth anything could have hauled even one Scolipede away against its will, much less a portion of a swarm this size where all of the other members could easily intervene. Hell, I'm pretty sure even deciding to mess with these guys would be signing your own death warrant, so why would anyone willingly do such a thing?

"Humans came in the middle of the night with their Pokemon, and snuck off with some of our kin when we were sleeping. They took us away in small numbers at a time, so our swarm came to the logical conclusion that they had simply left us. However, more and more of us ended up going missing and we became suspicious, so we set up night guards to chase off the humans that had stolen our brethren away." She explains, getting me to nod.

"I see. And because of your now drastically reduced numbers, you can't really search for them, nor can your formulate some kind of counter attack on your own, correct?" I ask her, to which she nods in reply. "That is correct. However, most of the remaining Scolipede have been too stubborn to ask for help from other Bug Types that also reside in this forest. Even now, we can barely keep the humans at bay if we take turns watching over our sleeping kin." She growls, her eyes narrowing as her tone gains a frustrated edge to it.

"It simply isn't logical! They can't let us all be captured by humans, simply because they wish to protect their pride!" She rants, anger clear to see from her stance as well as her voice. However, she quickly sees the rest of the team shaking next to me, which quickly shifts her expression from angry to apologetic. "I'm sorry, everyone. I did not wish to frighten you like that." She lowers her head in apology, her tone now returning to that soft, motherly voice again. She may be a big softie, but god damn she can be scary when she wants to be. By now, we've already followed her a fair distance away from the Scolipede nesting site.

"I had wanted to ask you to help save us from ourselves, human. However, I would not be surprised if you simply declined my pleas for assistance. Just say the word and I will escort you from this place." She sighs in defeat, her expression unreadable as she awaits my answer. There was the easy way out, right there in front of me. However, seeing such a mighty creature have to beg for help simply because of what humans had done to her, I can't afford not to care anymore.

"I'll help out." I speak up, getting the attention of the Scolipede as she blinks in surprise. "Excuse me?" She asks, getting me to nod as I approach her. "You heard me. I'll help you deal with your human problem. Besides, I have a sneaking suspicion that these guys aren't up to any good with all the Scolipede they've taken." I repeat my answer, causing the large venomous Bug Type to suddenly grab my body with her front appendages and squish me close to her significantly larger form.

"Thank you, human! You have no idea how grateful I am!" She squeals in happiness, before she promptly lets me go. "No problem. Oh, and call me Jay. That's my name, if ya didn't know." I reply, to which the Scolipede nods. "Oh, god! Air! I need air!" Dani gasps, exiting the confines of my hoodie before taking a deep whiff. "Ow…" Lily moans, getting me to sweat drop. "Oops. Sorry, you two." I grin wryly, while the Scolipede gasps in shock and horror.

"Oh, my! I'm so sorry about that! I didn't realize that the two of you were in there! Are you two okay?" She yelps, getting Dani to nod. "Yeah, I'm good lady." She replies, Lily nodding as well. "It's fine, Miss! We're okay!" She adds, getting the Scolipede to sigh in relief. "Thank goodness. Again, I'm terribly sorry for crushing you." She proceeds to apologize once more, to which Dani sighs in response to her apology.

"I told ya, we're fine. There's no need to say sorry this many times, okay?" She assures the Scolipede, while Lily smiles at the large Bug Type. "You sure are nice for a Scolipede, Miss!" She comments, making the large millipede Pokemon smile in kind to the Petilil's compliment. "Eh, Jay's hoodie smelled too much like ketchup, anyways." Dani waves it off, making Alita look at me with a deadpan stare. "Seriously, you idiot? The hell do you keep in there?" She sighs, getting me to shrug in reply. "What? There's nothing wrong with keeping spare ketchup in my pockets." I defend myself.

"You didn't ask if we wanted to help them, though…" Nesia reminds me with a tap on the head from her vines, which makes me realize that I didn't ask the team if they wanted to help out. "Oh, yeah. So, you guys feel like helping?" I ask them, a sheepish grin on my face. "I dunno, Jay. I'm not too sure I wanna help out…" Dani grins, a fake look of pondering on her face. "It is hard to justify a valid reason for helping them out…" Katrina adds, smirking playfully at me as she considers the option. Sighing, I crouch down to their level and address them.

"Come on, girls. Please?" I beg, getting Katrina to smile as she slinks past me. "Well, since you asked so nicely. I'll assist you." She nods, Dani agreeing to help as well. "Same. Seeing your frustration when I said I'd think about it is good enough for me." She snickers, making me roll my eyes at the two pranksters. "I'll help out too, Sir!" Lily adds, although she doesn't seem to be able to keep her gaze off of the large Bug Type. Well, I guess fears can't be overcome in a day. "I'll help, I guess." Alita says rather dismissively, while Chell nods my way. She seems to finally be warming up to me again, having looked at me directly in the eyes for the first time after the argument we had.

"I'll help." Nesia nods, while Cleo nods as well. "Well, Ah'll pitch in too. No sense in leavin' such a nice lady high and dry after what she told us." She replies, getting me to smile. "Thanks, team. I seriously have no idea what the hell I'd do without you." I thank them, the Scolipede giggling at our light banter. "It would seem that you're really friendly, Jay. And here I thought all humans were just as you said." She comments, getting me to blush in embarrassment as I receive the praise. "Well, there's always wonder in the world. Like a human who cares about Pokemon, and a Scolipede who cares about her family more than she does herself." I shoot back, to which the Scolipede nods. For such a large and powerful insect, she sure is relatable.

"Mom? What's with all the noise?" I hear someone groan, which gets me to look to the source of the voice. Sure enough, I can see that our conversation awakened the Venipede. Aside from being a little annoyed, she seems to be fine. "Heya, squirt. Sorry about waking you up." I wave at her from her perch, to which she blinks before looking down to address me. "Oh, it's you. You haven't left yet?" She asks me, getting me to shake my head.

"Well, not yet. But, I am leaving eventually. I'm gonna have to deal with the human problem that you're having first, though. Word from your mom is that some of the Scolipede have gone missing, and I want to help out. But first, let me show you all something." I explain, pulling out the business card I had swiped off of the Plasma Grunt's body when I was carrying him out of the forest. "What's that?" Nesia quickly asks, getting me to show her the card and allowing her to read the fine print.

"Well, it's a business card. Humans use these things to make sure that other people know how to contact them if they wanted to buy things from them again. Usually there's a phone number on the backside of this thing…" I mutter, Nesia quickly taps me on the shoulder to show me that she found the phone number. "That was fast. Nice work, Ness." I smile, petting her on the head as I thank her, seeing her smile happily as I do so. Meanwhile, Alita stares at the thing in confusion. "Why the hell did you show us this, then? I don't really get how this helps us find those guys." She replies, getting me to sigh as I poke her head. "Hey! What was that for!?" She growls at me, to which I point to the card.

"Did you seriously not hear me? I said that people can use this card to talk to the guys that gave them this. Since this is an underground Battle Arena, they might have taken the Scolipede because they find the addition of such strong Bug Types into the Arena as a great way to make money." I tell her, Cleo raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Wait a sec. Ah don't really get all this Battle Arena business. How in the heck do they get to make money of a' stolen Scolipede?" She asks, while Dani raises an eyebrow in reply to what I had said. "Yeah, I don't really get that bit, either. Do you mind explaining?" She asks.

"Okay, so a Battle Arena is where Trainers get together in a large Grand Tournament that isn't the Pokemon League, in order to earn money by winning fights with their Pokemon. People don't only fight with Pokemon there, they can place bets on and sell Pokemon as well. However, there is such a thing when a Battle Arena is held illegally, which means against the rules. Instead of fighting until one of the Pokemon faints, people can watch them fight to the death for fun." I tell the Pokemon around me, all of them immediately looking quite appalled.

"That's so sick and wrong! And the humans just let this happen!?" Alita gawks, making me sigh as I nod in reply. "Yep. Since the law doesn't know about these places, owners can do whatever they want to the Pokemon in their possession. Sometimes these places even have a brothel section, where the females and males that are deemed unfit to fight are restrained to be used as sex slaves. Basically, the Pokemon are forcefully fucked and violated by humans. So long as the human pays the right price, they get to bang a Pokemon." I finish, immediately seeing everyone else listening in only showing even more varying degrees of anger and shock.

"That is simply disgusting." Katrina hisses darkly, clearly showing her immense disdain of the actions of some humans. Meanwhile, I see Alita and Dani showing pretty much the same expression of burning hatred. "Those sick bastards!" Alita growls, while Dani just scowls as she hears me finish up my explanation. Nesia is silent as well, her mouth curled up into a scowl as she also shares the same anger as her fellow Grass Types. Chell looks the same way Nesia does, her paws already curled into fists with her teeth clenched. "That sounds awful!" Lily yelps, already looking scared of what we were getting ourselves into.

However, the Scolipede is showing no shortage of worry. "No…! All this time, they've been fighting to the death, or being used… like that? That's terrible!" She sniffs, tears already building in the corners of her eyes. "Damn it! We've gotta do something about this!" The Venipede yells, to which I turn to comfort the distressed motherly Pokemon. "Well, when did they get taken? From what I know, it takes a while for them to break the will of such a prideful Pokemon, not to mention the natural strength of a Scolipede will cause some huge problems for anyone trying to subdue it." I ask the Scolipede, who looks at me hopefully.

"They were taken a week ago. Does this mean they're still alright?" She asks me in return, almost begging me to say that they are. "I can't say for sure. But, judging how strong and defiant the average Scolipede is, they should be roughed up, but they should be fine otherwise." I reassure her, which makes her smile a little despite the gravity of the situation. I couldn't just lie to her and say that everything was gonna be okay, so I told her what the most likely truth was.

"What's the plan, Jay?" Alita asks, already looking mentally prepared to put a beat down on some assholes. "Okay. The first thing I'm gonna do is call 'em up, so I'll need everyone to keep quiet. They're most likely more than willing to get some money out of a new customer, so there's a large chance they'll tell me where they are." I explain, making the Pokemon nod as I pull out my phone and tap in the phone number. Soon enough, the phone stops ringing up the number and someone picks up on the other end of the call.

"Hello, this is the Deep Forest Battling Club. How may I help you?" Huh, so I guess a girl picked up, judging from the tone of voice. "Yeah, I've been recommended by a friend that this is the place to call if I wanna test my luck, watch Pokemon murder the crap outta each other and make some cash." I explain, trying my best to act natural. "Then you've called up the right place, kid! We've got a great event up tonight, and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it. We've got a two on one death match, a Scolipede fighting against a Lucario and a Zoroark. Blood will spill, bones will break, and death will be the only outcome to end the fight! You interested?" She asks me, making me grit my teeth in anger. Pokemon are fighting to the death, and she treats it as sport!?

"Sure thing. When and where is the fight going down?" I reply, trying not to let my disgust and anger at her casual remark seep through. "It's going to be held at six in the evening. Keep your phone on, and we'll come over to pick you up in about thirty minutes." She tells me, getting me to raise an eyebrow. They're smart about this, at least. "Alright, then. I'll be waiting." I reply, hanging up shortly after. Once I'm done with the call, I check the time. Seeing the time to be only two in the afternoon, I put my phone back in my pocket.

"Alright, that's done and dusted. Now, they told me that they'll send some guys over to get me over to where they are. Once I'm inside, I'll take a look around, see if I can't find some ways to tear the place down from the inside, or from the outside." I tell them, before I point to my TBA. "I'm gonna have to put you girls in here, because things might get a little suspicious if I waltz in with a bunch of Pokemon by my side and out of their balls." I continue, getting Alita to interject.

"Wait, what!? Why!?" She yells, as Cleo looks at me in confusion. "Ah'm not too sure what yer plannin' by doin' that." She adds, while Chell immediately looks less comfortable when she hears my plan. In response to their questions, I sigh. "Having all of you follow me around will attract a lot of attention, and trust me when I say unwanted attention is the last thing we need if we wanna infiltrate the place and free the Scolipede." I explain, getting Cleo to nod as she begins to put the pieces into place. Nesia and Katrina have already figured it out, while I look at Chell.

"Listen, Chell. I'll make sure you don't stay in there for too long, eh? We'll do this quick, and get the hell out." I promise her, which gets her to tense up as she hears me call her name. She nods slowly in reply, showing her agreement my terms. "Right. So now, all I'm gonna do is wait for my escort to show up. I'll get back here as soon as I can, after I've gotten the Scolipede out. You two should stay out of sight. I'm sure that they'd love to get their hands on another powerful Pokemon." I turn to address the mother Scolipede, who nods in response to my plan of action.

"Very well, Jay. I wish you the best of luck." She nods, before she quickly turns to leave the area with her child, while I walk on over a little ways further from the area in the opposite direction they were headed. At this point, Lily decides to take a peek from within my hoodie. Seeing the Scolipede to be gone, she heaves a sigh of relief as she gets out of my hoodie and lets me put her on the ground again. "Heya, Lily. What finally got you to come out, huh?" I ask the Petilil, who looks up at me.

"Sorry, Sir. I guess seeing those Scolipede really scared me, that's all." She replies, to which I nod in understanding. Well, guess I was kinda right about her being scared of those large bugs, eh? Stopping under a large tree, I take a seat down on the grass in order to get comfortable. "So, we've got a while before they get here. Anyone feel like a snack?" I ask the team, Cleo nodding as she walks on over to me.

"Well, Ah reckon a snack would do some mighty good 'bout now." She replies, to which I grin. Dani and Chell also seem to want a snack, but the latter is still trying to avoid me somewhat. "Sure thing, Jay! I could use a snack." Dani adds, quickly agreeing with me on the prospect of a snack break. "Sure thing, girls. Hold on for a moment, wool-d you? I need to reach into my bag and find something to munch on." I grin, Alita groaning as she quickly picks up on my poor sense of humor.

"God damn it, you idiot! Do you always need to make such dumb jokes all the time!?" She sighs, Nesia rolling her eyes as she hears me crank out another one. "That was so darn bad, Jay!" Cleo giggles, while Dani snickers at the Tranquill's irritation. "Seriously, Ali. That face you're making is hilarious!" She giggles, swiftly dodging a quick wing slap from the Tranquill. "Can it, cotton ball!" Alita growls, the Cottonee floating up and out of wing's reach as she fumes. As Chell smiles due to the terrible joke I made, Katrina simply smiles as she watches us fool around. Lily decides to stay silent as well, smiling as she sees everyone sharing a laugh.

Meanwhile, I pull out a medium sized box out of my backpack and open the lid. Inside is a small collection of berries, with at least a handful of each type within. "Woah! That's some sweet stuff right there!" Dani cheers, taking a Lum Berry to chew on. "Ah'll say! You sure came prepared, huh Jay?" Cleo raises an eyebrow before she uses her mouth to bite into a Pecha Berry, getting berry juices all over her lips and on her lower jaw. Meanwhile, Chell takes an Oran Berry from the box, munching on it slowly as a smile spreads out on her face.

"Yup. I suppose you could say it was berry nice of me to plan ahead, huh?" I joke, making Alita slap me upside the head with her wing. "Ow! That hurt my feelings!" I grin, unfazed by Alita's sudden outburst. "Seriously, Jay!? You are such a stupid idiot!" She fumes, simply getting Dani to snicker at her once more. "Golly, that was dumb!" Cleo giggles, while Chell's smile only gets wider from there. All in all, the team and I are having a blast. Smirking, I pick up a berry from the box and bite into it.

Well, at least I assumed I would bite into the berry. Instead, I suddenly hear a whoosh and see a small figure swing by out of nowhere, and I get a mouthful of my own fingers. Once I feel the pain of me biting myself, I stare at my hand in confusion. "Wait, what?" I muse, before I hear the sound of laughing up above me. Looking up, the first thing I lay my eyes on is a drop of berry juice dripping into my eye. The initial contact stings, making me raise my sleeve up to wipe the juice away.

"Ow! Geez, what the hell?" I curse, hearing the laughing only get louder. Looking up, I see a Sewaddle perched on a branch, laughing at me as she nibbles on my berry. "Ha! The look on your face is just priceless!" She taunts me, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "You little…!" Alita growls, but I stop her from taking flight. "Don't. It's not really worth the effort." I choose to simply ignore what had happened, sitting back down and eating another berry.

Hearing my response, the Sewaddle stops laughing and spits some silk at me. The stuff barely misses my head, while I choose to ignore it completely. "Hey! Don't ignore me, human!" The Sewaddle, now pissed off by my apathy, growls at me from its vantage point. Shrugging, I simply pick up another berry from the pile and eat it. "Eh. Takes too much energy to stand up and climb the tree." I reply halfheartedly, getting the Bug Type to fume even more.

Before the Sewaddle can make its next move, I suddenly hear a familiar voice call out to me. "Jay! Wait for me!" Turning to see who it is, I find myself to be looking at none other than the very same Venipede that had escorted me to the Scolipede nesting grounds. "Oh hey, it's you." I address her, before the Sewaddle abruptly swings down via a thread to tackle the Venipede to the ground. Initially, I had thought this to be an attack on the Venipede, but I quickly see otherwise after what each side says next.

"Gotcha!" The Sewaddle laughs as she tackles the Venipede, who uses her legs to grad onto the other Bug Type. "You wish!" She giggles, making me smile wryly as the two have their fun. "So, you two know each other?" I ask them, to which the Venipede looks to me and nods. "Yup! I met her when we were younger." She replies, while the Sewaddle grins at her friend. "Heh, yeah. We got along really fast!" She replies, getting me to nod in understanding. "I can see why. The two of you act really similar." I comment, making the both of them look at me strange. "What's that supposed to mean?" They both ask, making me chuckle as they realize they had just synced each other. "That's what I meant." I grin, getting them both to huff. Well, at least the wait now will be less boring.

 **Author's Note: Heya, everyone. Today marks a very important occasion, as well as something I had never expected to happen. It's been exactly one whole year since the beginning of this story of mine, which makes this chapter the first somewhat of a birthday for Jay's Adventures In Unova. A Happy Birthday would be nice, and this lazy author would like that a lot. I hope all of you keep supporting the story like you have, and I'm sure as hell not going to stop writing for all of you guys and gals out there.**

 **Lots of Love and Appreciation,**

 **Roccer**

 **(On, and BTW, shout out to the amazing darkstel and the cool dude known as Kurogano Yokaze for the reminder of a certain story's First Birthday! Check them out if you have the time, 'kay kiddos? They're hella cool.)**


	55. Chapter 55

Chapter 55

[Jay]

"I'm bored, Jay! When do we get to go?" Alita groans, her head lazily sweeping the area in front of her as she looks around for any sign of the escort we were promised. Rolling my eyes and checking the time, I see that only three minutes had passed since the Sewaddle had shown up. Said Sewaddle is currently messing around with the Venipede, both of whom had decided to stay here and await our escort with us.

"Ali, you've asked that question fifteen times over the past three minutes. You know that, right?" I deadpan, making her sigh as she flicks her wing out at a random tiny pebble that was next to her. The force of her wing beat blows the rock away, the stone rolling for a bit across the dirt before stopping. After the rock ceases its momentum, Alita groans again as she tucks her head in her wing. "So damn bored!" She yells into her wing, getting me to shrugs and look at Dani and Lily, who are watching the clouds roll by.

"That one looks like a duck!" Lily speaks up, pointing to a particular cloud. "Sure, but I think it's more of a rabbit." Dani suggests, getting me to raise an eyebrow and look at what they were talking about. Sure enough, I see a cloud directly above them that looks like a rabbit, but kind of looks like a duck at the same time. They're having fun guessing shapes and laughing at each other's guesses. Chell is practicing her skills on a nearby tree, Nesia is spending her time slithering around in the trees above us, and Katrina is simply chatting with Cleo as they sit on the ground. However, Alita seems to be failing to deal with her own boredom. Seriously, I think she's going to be the first ever creature to die of boredom if I don't do something soon.

Seeing her like this, I proceed to do what I do best. I promptly grab onto her with my hands and place her in my lap in one swift motion. Then, I use my hands to pat her head and body gently. "Hey!? What gives, you idiot!?" Alita yelps in shock when I pick her up, but she quickly loses the will to argue with me any further when my hands go to work, easing her boredom and irritation away with every stroke and rub of my fingers.

"There ya go, miss bored and annoyed. Feeling any better now?" I ask her, getting the Tranquill to nod as she calms down and lets my hands do the work. "Yeah. It feels nice." She mumbles, getting me to raise an eyebrow at her and chuckle. "Maybe I should calm you down like this whenever I talk to you. You're so much more approachable and honest with me when you're like this." I grin, to which she huffs. "Hey! The hell is that supposed to mean?" She asks, making me smile cheekily at her as she glares my way.

"Well, what do you think it means? Maybe you're just over thinking things too much, eh? Maybe it's just my way of telling you that I like you and simply wanted to give you pats." I shoot back at her, getting her to blush and look away with a huff. "You're such an ass." She smirks, her anger having long since faded away along with her scowl. "I know I am. Don't forget that I'm a generous ass, at that." I chuckle, my grin still ever present on my face. "Shut up, idiot!" Alita groans, swatting my head lightly with an outstretched wing with a smile of her own. My method, weird as it was, does seem to have worked for now.

She relaxes back into my hand as I pet her, cooing softly as I touch her feathers and wings. "This feels so good…" She sighs happily, getting me to grin. "And you feel so soft, Ali. Like a plushie stuffed with the softest cotton imaginable." I reply, getting her to look at me strangely. "Wait, what? The hell is a plushie?" She asks me. "Well, it's like a doll that people hug. It's made after an animal like a bear, and looks cute. It's full of soft stuff like cotton, so I like hugging them a lot." I explain, to which she nods in understanding. "I'm soft, huh?" She repeats, blushing a bit at the thought of what I had complimented her about.

With Alita currently enjoying my ministrations, I put my head back against the tree to relax. Well, I was about to relax, anyways. It's kinda hard to do that when you have a back covered in sticky, white gunk. "What the heck?" I say out loud, before the sound of two certain Bug Types giggling gets me to sigh in exasperation. Yup, I should have known. "Really, you two?" I deadpan at the two cheeky Bug Types, the Sewaddle in particular laughing her ass off.

"Nice one, sis!" The Venipede giggles, the Sewaddle laughing along with her friend. "Oh my god, he fell for it so hard!" She snorts, getting me to shake my head and call out for Chell. She's still fixated on cutting away at her tree, so I had to raise my voice considerably before she hears me. "Chell? I kinda need your help with something. Do you mind?" I ask her, getting her to quickly cease her training and walk on over. "Sure thing, Jay. What is it?" She asks me, although she's still avoiding my gaze somewhat.

"Well, I seam a little strung up at the moment, so could you help me cut some ties?" I joke, getting Chell to smile at me as Alita groans. Slapping me on the head with her wing, she huffs as Cleo laughs at my puns. "Seriously, you idiot!? Stop it with those stupid jokes of yours! They're so lame!" She berates me, getting me to shrug. "I just needed some help getting out of this sticky situation." I make another pun to further the humor as my grin grows cheeky. "Those were terrible!" Cleo snorts, giggling with mirth as Dani snickers along with us.

"Sorry, Ali. That face you're making is just priceless!" She giggles, while the Sewaddle and Venipede join in on the fun. "I can't argue with that! That was hilarious!" The Venipede giggles along with the Sewaddle, who is also currently in the middle of laughing at the frustrations of the Tranquill. "Your frustration is so funny!" She laughs, getting Alita's face to turn beet red before she starts pecking at the two bugs angrily.

"You wanna go, you little pests!?" She screams, fuming as she misses the Bug Types with her sharp beak. Laughing all the while, the two quickly use their many limbs to climb up into the safety of the tree I'm resting under. Having been cut loose by Chell, I move on over to calm the Tranquill down. "C'mon, Ali. Killing them won't change anything. Besides, it's a little hot out today, and I don't need your attitude adding to that heat. Just sit back and relax, alright?" I soothe, getting her to nod and sit back down after mulling over what I had said.

"Eh, you're right. No use in killing them, anyway." She agrees, before promptly sitting back down in my lap with a faint blush on her cheeks. Smiling as I quickly catch onto what she most likely wants, I reach my hand out to pet her head anew. I simply let my other hand lazily slump off to the side, as I look up into the sky past the trees. Well, my other hand doesn't get to stay idle for long, as I suddenly feel a familiar, scaly sensation rubbing against it.

Looking down, I confirm my suspicions when I see a certain Grass snake nuzzling the palm of my hand. "Heya, Ness. Done with the trees already?" I ask her, getting her to nod as she uses her vines to grab a hold of my hand. "Use your hand." She demands, getting me to smirk as I feign stupidity. "For what? I'm using my hand for nothing right now, so I don't really get what you want me to do." I chuckle, causing the Servine to pout as she realizes that I'm toying with her.

"Master is so mean. Hmpf." She huffs, crossing her arms and looking away from me in such a cute way. "Alright, alright. Here ya go, ya cute snake." I sigh with a smirk, using my other hand to pat her scaly head and hearing her content sighs as she feels my warm hand in contrast to her smooth and cool scales. "I like Master's head pats. They make me feel so happy…" Nesia sighs blissfully, while I chuckle. "So you only like me for my hands, Ness?" I ask her, to which she quickly shakes her head. "No. I like Master's hands because they are Master's hands. No one else can pet me like I let Master pet me." She smiles at me, making me grin back at her.

"And I don't treat anyone like I treat you, Ness. You're such a special little snake, aren't ya?" I smile, getting the Servine to blush a little. "Master, don't say that. It's embarrassing…" She murmurs, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "If you like the idea of being special to me, then there's no need to hide it. You're special to me too, after all. One Alita is enough. The world isn't ready for two." I reply with a chuckle, Nesia's cheeks reddening a little more as she smiles to herself. "…Master is special to me, too." She finally admits after a little while, getting me to grin as I use a finger to boop her on the nose.

"And you're special to me too, Ness. Boop." I grin, getting Nesia to tentatively reach out and touch the tip of my nose with her vine. "Boop." She imitates me with her flustered expression, making me laugh. "Oh, a booping contest I see. I'll have you know, I've never turned down a booping contest before. Boop!" I declare in a playful manner, chuckling as I boop her nose again. Determined to out-boop me, she quickly retaliates with a boop of her own. "Boop." She states, using her vines to touch my nose again. When I look at her again, I can see the smile plastered on her face as she accepts my challenge.

"It's time for my secret move! Boop boop, boop boop boop!" Using my fingers to my advantage I quickly boop her nose five times, each finger accounting for one boop. Surprised at the speed of which I had booped her nose and because she lacked the digits to return the attack, the Servine hangs her head in mock defeat. "I submit. Master truly is too strong." She sighs, getting me to smirk as I pat her head.

"Heh, looks like I win this one. Don't worry, young Servine. Train hard, and return to me once more. Then, we shall have a rematch!" I declare, getting Nesia to giggle as I goof off. "Master's such a goofball." She smiles as she pokes my side. "I know that much. It's not a bad thing, though." I retort, petting her scaly head and causing her to sigh as she feels my ministrations once more.

"Hey! What in tarnation!?" I suddenly hear Cleo yelp, quickly getting me to turn and look over at the Mareep. Looking atop her back, I see the source of the confusion. "Cleo, you've got a serious case of the back bugs." I chuckle, gesturing to the antenna of the two Bug Types that had suddenly decided to drop down from the tree above and land into the soft, wooly cushion that was her wooly coat. As soon as they surface from the coat's depths, they proceed to laugh.

"Man, that was fun! That fall was crazy!" The Venipede giggles, while the Sewaddle laughs along with her friend. "I'll say! That was one hell of a drop!" She agrees, getting Cleo to glare at them as she begins charging up sparks of electricity in her fleece. "If the two a' ya don't scram on outta there, I'ma gonna have ta take matters inta mah own hands." She warns them, getting the two of them to gulp. "Okay, okay! Don't electrocute us!" The Venipede yelps, wiggling out of the sheep Pokemon's coat and onto the ground along with her partner in crime.

While I shake my head at the antics of the two, Katrina suddenly taps me on the shoulder. "Yeah? What is it, Kat?" I ask her, to which she gestures to the two Bug Types. "I personally find it a little strange that these two are waiting with us. Something seems amiss." She tells me, getting me to raise an eyebrow as I look at them. "Well, you do have a point. They honestly don't need to wait with us." I reply, realizing that the feline is certainly on to something here. They don't have to risk their lives along with us, so why are they here?

"Excuse me, you two." I call out to the two Bug Types, getting their attention as they look in my direction. "Yeah? What is it?" The Venipede asks me, the Sewaddle shooting a slight look of irritation my way. "Well, I've got a question. Why are you two waiting with us? You don't have to do this, ya know." I state the obvious, seeing the Venipede immediately quiet down and averting her gaze from mine. Looks like I've struck a nerve with her.

"That's none of your business, human! We can do whatever we want!" The Sewaddle growls defensively in reply, getting me to shrug. "Okay, okay. Geez, I was just asking. I'm pretty sure she knows the danger of going to where we're headed, so I'm not too sure why the two of you are tagging along." I end the conversation there, not wanting to piss off the Sewaddle any further and provoke an attack.

"Hey! You're going with us, so we should get to know why you're doing this!" Alita retorts, not liking the answer that the Sewaddle gave me. "Oh, yeah!? Last time I checked, I'm allowed to keep things to myself!" The Bug Type shoots back, pissing Alita off further as the argument begins to heat up. "You little leaf munching worm! I'll kick your ass right fucking now!" Alita yells and gets up, about to blast the Sewaddle with an Air Cutter before I stop her with a hand.

"No fighting. She's right, you know." I tell Alita, who looks at me incredulously. "But she-" She begins to argue, before I cut her off. " I know she's mean, but it isn't worth the effort. Besides, beating her up won't get her to tell you anything." I explain, getting her to sigh as she sits back down in my lap. "Fine. But only because you made a good point." She mumbles, while the Sewaddle simply taunts the Tranquill.

"What? Not gonna fight me because your human master told you not to? You're such a bottom bitch, birdie." She snickers, making Alita growl angrily at her. However, I just shrug. "Well, being a bottom bitch is better than trying to pick a fight." I reply, getting the Sewaddle to fume at me. "Shut up, human! This has nothing to do with you!" She growls, getting me to shake my head. "If you pick a fight with her, then you're picking a fight with me. Fighting takes too much effort. Not worth it, especially if I'm fighting you." Alita blushes when she hears my answer, immediately losing her glare towards the Sewaddle as she calms down and watches me defend her.

My comeback seems to have left the little Bug Type speechless, before she growls angrily at me. "Not worth it!? I'll show you not worth it when I kick your ass!" She yells, already rearing up to shoot a String Shot into my face. Nesia, having overheard the conversation, is already prepared to defend me, vines outstretched. However, the Venipede stops her friend before things get physical.

"Stop! Don't fight." She sighs, using her antennae to tap the Sewaddle on the head. "I'll tell him, so don't fight." She sighs, looking to me as she says so. The Sewaddle looks initially surprised at first, but she nods and backs down reluctantly. "Fine." She huffs, leaving the small millipede Pokemon to face me. "So, you really wanna know, huh?" She asks, getting me to nod and listen in to what she has to say.

"Well, it's mostly because of my dad. He doesn't exactly think I'm strong to begin with." She starts, getting me to nod as I begin to realize what this is about. "Being the only girl from a nest of twelve, I wasn't treated like my brothers. Dad gives them more attention, and helps them improve their battling skills by teaching them what he knows. Most of them have even evolved into Whirlipede by now, so they've already left on their tests of strength." She continues, her gaze now showing sadness.

"Um, excuse me. What's a test of strength?" Lily asks the Venipede, who looks at the Petilil in confusion. "Sorry about this, but I have no idea what a test of strength is." I add, getting her to realize that we have no idea what she was referring to. "Oh, right. You're not part of the swarm." She chuckles, albeit that chuckle being a sad one. "A test of strength is where the Whirlipede of the swarm leave to live in the deeper areas of the forest. By no means are they allowed to come back before they evolve, which is the end goal of the trial. If they break any rules, they're killed. No questions asked." She explains, getting Dani to wince.

"Yeesh, that sounds rough." She comments, to which I nod in agreement. Whirlipede have a special organ in their bodies that actually generates energy when they whirl around. That's why they don't have any mouths or buttholes to speak of. So, if they roll around long enough, they can actually evolve. So, a test of strength sounds perfect for encouraging evolution. Surprisingly clever on their part.

"So, yeah. Some of the others have already left, and Dad says he's proud of them. He's never proud of me, though. I know that, since I know what he argues about with Mom every night. I thought that if I could save the others from the humans, he might be proud of me for once." She sighs, suddenly making me feel really bad for asking her about this in the first place. Cleo's gaze softens as she hears her out, allowing me to see the empathy in her eyes. Well, her parents did tell her to stop dreaming about leaving, so I suppose that's to be expected.

"He's never told me that he appreciates me, and he's never complimented me for my efforts, either! I work hard every day, and for what!? It's like he doesn't care about me at all!" She growls angrily, tears already starting to leak from the corners of her eyes. "It's like I'm not his daughter at all! It's not fair!" She chokes, her anger already starting to crumble and give way to her sadness. The Sewaddle says nothing as her friend cries her heart out, not wanting to make things worse.

Cleo quickly approaches the crying Venipede, and taps her lightly on the back with her appendage. "If it makes ya feel any better, Ah didn't exactly have the most supportive a' parents, either." She speaks up, getting the Venipede to look her way. "What do you mean?" She asks, to which Cleo sighs as she goes into a little more detail. "Well, mah parents didn't want me leavin' the farm Ah came from with Jay ta begin with. They said Ah'd be happier here than anywhere else. But, Ah decided to follow the path Ah wanted ta take instead of doin' what they wanted. So, it ended up bein' a mix a' them kicking me out and me leavin' with Jay." She chuckles sadly, recalling what had happened earlier today.

I immediately feel that twinge of guilt poking at my heart again as Cleo tries to comfort the Bug Type. I hadn't known that she had gone through that before we had left this morning. She had mentioned that her parent's didn't like the idea, but I had no idea that had happened. "Wait, what? So you just left them to go with someone you barely knew?" She asks, taking a moment to look at me before looking back to the Mareep.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Ah'm pretty sure mah folks hate me fer what Ah chose, but Ah did what Ah thought was the right thing back then. So, Ah don't really regret leavin' to be honest. Besides, Jay ain't that bad of a guy once ya get ta know 'em." She adds. "Cleo? I'm sorry if I caused some trouble with your folks earlier." I apologize to the Mareep, who chuckles in response. "It's fine, Jay. Ah knew what Ah was gettin' mahself inta when Ah wanted ta leave." She reassures me, which gets me to nod thankfully as I feel the guilt fade away.

"Thanks for forgiving me, Cleo." I thank her, getting her to poke me in the side. "Yer gettin' a mite mushy there, Jay! Ah didn't realize ya cared. Ah knew ya weren't that bad." She grins my way, getting me to raise an eyebrow as I smile back. "Not that bad? What's that supposed to mean, huh?" I chuckle, messing up the fur on her head with my hand and getting her to giggle. "Ya know darn well what Ah mean, Jay!" She shoots back, poking me in the side with her appendage.

"She means your puns suck, idiot." Alita speaks up, getting me to pat her head affectionately. "No they don't! They're funny." I retort, getting Nesia to shake her head. "No." She quickly shoots down my counter argument, getting me to sigh. "You're so mean, Ness! I thought you'd be a little more supportive of me that that!" I whine, crossing my arms and getting the Servine to roll her eyes. Katrina simply smiles as she eyes the situation, watching us dick around. Even the Venipede seems to have cheered up a little as she watches us converse.

"If you feel like tagging along, then that's fine with me." I turn my attention to the two Bug Types, the Venipede looking at me with a thankful gaze. "I go wherever she goes, so don't even think about leaving me out!" The Sewaddle adds, to which I nod. "Wouldn't dream of it. Quick question, though. How would the two of you want to tag along? Would you rather stay outside, or get sucked into this?" I ask them, gesturing to the TBA. Seeing the device, the Sewaddle is quick to question my offer.

"I'm not too sure I trust you on this one. I prefer my freedom." She replies, which Dani tries to convince her otherwise. "It's not as bad as you think! It's pretty nice in there, to be honest." She speaks up, Lily nodding in agreement. "There's a forest in there, and even a lake. It feels pretty real." She adds, getting the Sewaddle to shake her head. "I'm still not sure about this." She sighs, the Venipede nodding to show her stance on the matter. "Same here. It doesn't feel right." She adds.

"If you wanna stay outside, it's fine. Just try not to attack any humans you see, or try and free your friends right off the bat. That'll attract attention, and attention is something you really don't want when you're planning an escape." I tell them, getting them to nod. Just as they voice their confirmation, I suddenly hear the sounds of bushes rustling near us. As I turn to look at the source of the sounds, I see two big, burly men step out of the bushes and two Throh accompanying them. Upon seeing the new arrivals, the team is immediately on edge, eyeing them with suspicion and uncertainty.

"We're here to escort you to the Club. What's the password?" One of the guys speaks up, gesturing to me and my team. "Oh, right. It's Thunder Dome. Just let me recall my team real quick." I nod in reply, quickly punching in the command to digitalize the team and store them in the gauntlet. Once they're inside, I turn to the men. "I'm ready. Lead on, gentlemen." I tell them, to which they nod and gesture for me to follow. The Venipede and the Sewaddle stick to my shoulders, the only logical places to be as to not arouse suspicion.

As we walk through the forest, cutting corners and pushing past layers of bushes, one of the men turn to look at me. "You look pretty young to be gambling, kid." He comments, to which I shake my head. "Nah, I'm of legal age. I just don't have the height to prove it." I reply, taking the chance to initiate casual conversation. The Throh next to him grunts with a smirk, holding his hand over my head, while his hand is simply a little ways below his shoulder.

"Aw, come on! That's just mean." I sigh, seeing the two Bug Types glaring daggers at the grunts. "What's with those two, kid? You should keep those animals in check." The other grunt taps me on the back, pointing to the two Bug Types on my shoulders. The Venipede's eye narrow in hatred, but it's the Sewaddle that takes the cake. "Animals!? I'll show you!" The Sewaddle growls, aiming to shoot at the guy with her string again, before I tap her gently on the head to stop her.

"Don't." I simply tell her in a firm but gentle tone. She glares my way this time, clearly angry at me. "Why!? Just let me kick his ass!" She yells, making me sigh. "And that would get us nowhere. If you knock them out, I won't be able to get to the place I want to go to. Geez, calm down will ya?" I berate her, getting her to relent, but quickly drops the subject when she sees the Venipede shake her head. "Fine!" She scowls, still glaring daggers at the guy.

"Sorry, man. I just got these two from the forest, and taming takes time." I explain, to which the guy just nods. "Eh, I know how that is. I've seen taming myself, after all. Just buy 'em, kid. Much less trouble involved, and you get a really powerful one in return." He suggests, making my blood boil. He didn't even address Pokemon as actual beings! He just said one, like they're replaceable items! God, I wanna kick his ass. "Right. I'll keep that in mind." I reply, trying to make myself seem less angry.

"God, I wanna kill 'em." The Venipede hisses in my ear, getting me to nod. "That makes three of us." I reply, lowering my voice to a hushed whisper. As we walk further into the woods, I finally see what we had been looking for. Sure enough as I walk close enough to the dense trees, there is a shimmering dome that is cleverly hidden by the thickest area of trees and shrubbery around. The leaves are a natural hiding place for many people and Pokemon within, and also works to be soundproof to a very large extent.

"So that's the place? How did I not find it?" The Sewaddle scoffs, finding the extent of the camouflage that the place was protected by to be a little lackluster. To be honest, I'm a bit confused, too. Any Pokemon that lives in the forest should be able to find this place, so what exactly helps hide this place from prying eyes? "We're here. Go on in, kid." One of the grunts speaks up, pointing to the door leading inside the Underground Battle Club. "Thanks." I nod to them, entering the premises with the two Bug Types on my shoulder.

Once we're inside, I immediately see and hear the large mass of people that are walking within the confines of the dome-like structure. Many people of differing age groups are roaming around, either to hang out with one another, or to get a drink at one of the nearby bars. Others are taking a look at the notice board for upcoming fights, and some are observing the Pokemon for sale, restrained and made to be slaves by tamers. However, most of the crowd is being drawn to the large dome in the center of the area. My guess is that that's where the fights are being held.

Now that we have a moment, I turn on the function that allows the Pokemon inside the gauntlet to see what's happening from my point of view, just in case they spot something I don't. "Girls? Can you hear me?" I ask, hearing many gasps of surprise. "Jay? There's a screen in front of us, and we can't see you." Alita speaks up, her voice sounding equal parts confused and scared.

"I've turned on the surrounding vision function, so you can see what's happening in front of me. This way, all of you can help out with finding some kind of way to tear this place down." I explain, getting a series of positive replies. "Alright, everyone. We have roughly three hours before the main fight starts, and I think we can use the distraction value of the fight to make our move. Before then, I think we should ask around and figure out how this place works." I suggest, the Venipede nodding in agreement.

"Not a bad plan, Jay. The large amount of humans will be more than enough to cover for us." She nods, while the Sewaddle also nods slowly when she hears the plan I have. "I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to come up with a plan like that. Nice going, Jay." She admits, making me grin her way. "Please. You underestimate my brain power." I shoot back, getting the Bug Type to roll her eyes. "Don't get smug, you moron." She sighs, while I try to locate someone who would know a little more about this place that everyone else in the crowd. "So, any ideas on who we could ask?" The Sewaddle speaks up, getting me to shrug.

"Maybe we should ask the people who work here?" Lily suggests, getting me to nod. "Huh. That's a good idea, Lily. I'll ask the bartenders. Striking up casual conversation and getting a drink is nice. Besides, they work here, so they should know something about how this place works." I think out loud, getting Nesia to sigh. "Don't get drunk." She warns, getting me to nod. "I know, Ness. I'm not dumb." I reply, walking over to the nearest bar to find some answers about this place. Also, I might need to also find some answers on how the hell Nesia knows about the side effects of alcohol in the first place. Seriously, how does she know!?


	56. Chapter 56

Chapter 56

[Jay]

Spotting the bars around here isn't the hard bit, but getting close enough to start a conversation with the bartender is. I mean, with everyone wanting to drink something around here, someone with my height is going to run into a problem or two. Measuring barely over 1.7 meters tall isn't doing me much good now, especially when everyone else is at least a head taller than I am. However, I still try to squeeze my way through the crowd and find a seat.

"There sure are a lot of people here, huh?" Dani comments as I push past the crowd, my sights set on the bar in front of me. "I know. They all look so scary…" Lily whimpers, letting me feel the fear in her voice. To be fair, they all were rather muscular and gruff looking. Some even have scars on their faces, or a tattoo on their arms, most likely for the purpose of intimidation. "Don't worry, Lily. I'll make sure they don't hurt a leaf on your head!" Dani comforts her friend, getting Cleo to nod. "It's okay, Lily. Ah'll make sure ta protect ya." Cleo reassures her. "Cleo is right. Have no fear, for we shall make sure they do not harm you." Katrina adds, getting me to smile. "Yeah, Lily. We'll make sure you stay safe, so don't worry." I reply, getting Lily to make an affirming sound.

"Thank you, everyone." She replies, while Alita nods with a 'hmph'. "They don't scare me. I'll kick all of their asses, easy." Alita speaks up, getting the Sewaddle to make an affirming sound. "Yeah, of course we will!" She adds, while the Venipede nods as well. Chuckling, I nod in agreement. "I know you will, but we should save that for when we have the upper hand." I remind them, to which the two Bug Types nod. "Yeah, yeah. We know." The Venipede sighs, to which the Sewaddle huffs as she glares at me. "Stop being such a buzz kill, human! Just because we can't do it now, doesn't mean we aren't allowed to be excited for it!" She retorts, while I chuckle.

"I never said you weren't allowed to fantasize. You're over thinking this a little too much, ya know." I point out, getting her to blush in embarrassment as she realizes there's truth behind what I'm saying. "Shut up, human." She huffs, while the Venipede and I snicker at her slip up. "Heh, he's right there." The Venipede giggles, to which the Sewaddle looks at her with a glare. "Hey! I thought you were on my side!" She yells, getting the Venipede to laugh. "I am, but that face you made was just priceless!" She snickers, while I simply listen in to their banter.

However, I am hit with a number of insults as I push past many of the individuals here, some of whom are more than happy to comment on my height. "Watch it, short stack!" One of the random passersby in the crowd I'm pushing past yells at me, making me roll my eyes. "Nice insult, dumbass. What are we, five?" I shoot back, getting the guy to growls as he tries to grab my shoulder. "What was that, you little shit?" He growls at me, making me shrug.

"Eh. Maybe you're deaf, buddy. I didn't say anything." I reply, which gets the man to push me backwards. I stumble and fall, but don't let out any sounds of pain as the seat of my pants collides with the cold, grimy floor. I'm not giving him that satisfaction of knowing that he hurt me. "JAY!" I hear many voices shout out from my ear piece, as the two Bug Types fall to the floor. I quickly reach out to catch them, saving them from the cold, dirty ground. "You two okay?" I check on the two, who nod in reply.

"Good. Now, get behind me. I'll handle this." I whisper to them, placing them onto the ground and eyeing the asshole that had pushed me. He's cracking his knuckles as he smirks my way, ready for a fight. "What now, kid? Gonna back down and run home to momma?" He cackles and taunts me, while I simply grin. "Are you gonna fight like a man, or talk like the pussy whipped bitch you are?" I shoot back, getting the people that had grouped around us to laugh as they hear me spit out the insult. This only serves to anger the guy even more, as his face turns red with rage.

"That's it! You're fucking dead, you little shit!" He yells, charging towards me with the intent to kill. However, he did not take into account my ability to dodge his rather slow and predictable windup. A few steps to the right were all it took to get out of his way. Nor did he account for the little kid he was fighting to pack such a shocking surprise when I use my hands to grab onto his arm. The joy buzzers I had in the palms of my hands quickly make quick work of him, shocking the muscle bound moron into the ground. Seriously, if he had paid attention to what I was doing, he would have avoided getting zapped.

"Come on, you two. Let's go." I call to the two Bug Types that I was protecting, picking them up and placing them on my shoulders again. Before I leave, I take one last look at the guy who tried to hit me. He's down and out for the count, the twitching of his large, burly limbs being the only indication that he had been shocked. Smirking, I spit on the guy. He deserved that for harassing me, the stupid bastard.

"Are you okay?" Katrina's worried voice reaches my ear, to which I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. I have a sore ass, but that won't bring me down too much." I assure her, before walking away from the unconscious muscle man. "Eh. I guess he wasn't expecting that, huh?" I grin, before walking away and leaving a crowd's worth of people stunned into silence. However, once I make haste and slither off into the crowd again, the crowd quickly disperses as the people continue their day as if nothing had happened. The guy does get carried away by what seems to be staff members of the Battle Club though, so he'll probably be fine.

"How did you do that!?" The Sewaddle speaks up first, looking at me like I had grown a second head. "Ah want sum answers too, Jay. How the heck did ya knock him out like that?" Cleo adds, getting me to shrug and slide my hands out of my pockets. "Well, it's because of these." I reply, holding up my hand to show her the little modified plates in the palms of my hands. "These things I made for self defense. It really does pay off to plan ahead sometimes, eh?" I grin, the Venipede eyeing the little contraptions with interest.

"So, are those just stuck to your hands or something?" She asks, to which I shake my head. "No, I can put these in my pockets whenever I want." I answer, slipping my hands back into my pockets and showing her my now freed hands. "That was so cool! He was about to smash you, and then you just went and zapped him!" Dani exclaims, to which Alita huffs. "I guess what you did to take care of the guy was cool." She admits, to which I grin. "Told ya I'd handle it." I reply, finally making it to the bar. It doesn't take me long to decide where to sit, as the only seats that aren't taken are where the counter is. There is a man in a trench coat sipping from a beer mug, but I don't pay him any mind.

"Excuse me, barkeep? I'll take a shot of whiskey, please." I call out to the man working behind the counter, who looks towards me with a raised eyebrow. "Eh, sure thing kid. One shot of whiskey, coming up." His face soon returns to its neutral state, as he grabs a bottle of alcohol from the shelf behind him and pours me a glass. He hands me the small shot glass, to which I sip from. The taste of this whiskey is strong, so I'd better watch myself. Not much a fan of strong booze, anyways. His confusion is understandable. I don't know many people my height or age that drink the stuff.

"I haven't seen you around here before, kid. Ya new here?" The guy asks, getting me to nod. "Yup. This place was recommended to me by a friend of mine." I reply, taking another small sip from my glass. Smirking, the bartender returns to wiping his glass, before shelving it back to where he got it. Taking a new one from the shelf, he turns back to me. "You've got some big balls, kid. First day here and you took out one of the tougher guys. He's one of the guys who just so happens to have a VIP membership around here." He comments, getting me to smirk inwardly. I can almost feel Katrina's blush from where she is right now.

"You saw the fight I had?" I ask him, to which he nods. "Sure did. Hard not to, when a crowd like that gathers." He replies, watching me down my shot glass in one go. "Whew, that's some strong stuff." I cough, seeing the bartender chuckle. "Yeah. We just got that a couple days ago. We found a Lucario and a Zoroark, so we got good fighters for the ring. But I think the fuck toys downstairs afre more interesting." He explains, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "Fuck toys? There's a brothel section here?" I ask him, to which he smirks. Zoroark are some of the few species to set up settlements and act like humans, so settlements of them can be found from time to time. However, it's odd to see a Zoroark wandering with a Lucarios.

"Already interested in banging a 'mon, kid? Man, you're fucked up." He laughs, getting me to shrug and grin wryly. "Eh, don't judge. From what you said, you've used them a fair amount of times before." I shoot back, getting the guy to nod. "You're right there. There's this Volcarona bitch downstairs that's really popular with the guys. Man, she's one hell of a cum dumpster. I've already paid to stick it in that pussy of hers three times this week. And that's outside of the times I've paid for her to blow me." He snickers, making my blood boil. What a sick bastard. Meanwhile, the two Bug Types on my shoulders glare daggers at the guy.

"That's so messed up! What kind of sick fuck would do that to anyone!?" Alita yells, while Chell growls when she hears what the guy has to say about the Volcarona he mentioned. "Disgusting." Nesia spits angrily, as Lily gasps in horror from what she had heard. "That's terrible! Why would anyone do that?" She sobs. "Jay, can we leave now? I can't stand this guy." Dani says, speaking for us all as Katrina voices her agreement on the matter.

"I agree. Let us be on our way, Jay. Listening to this vile creature disgusts me." She growls, Cleo seething with rage at the man. "Ah'm all fer that, Kat. Ah've seen sum bad humans before, but this just takes the cake." She hisses, her voice dripping with loathing and hatred for the guy. "Hold up, everyone. I still haven't asked him about the Club's defenses." I reply, anger leaking through my voice as well. However, the barkeep doesn't seem to take notice. Since the team has made the choice of wanting to get away from this guy as soon as possible, I decide to make this quick.

"Question. Do you have any idea how this place works? How do you hide this place from the cops?" I ask him, to which he chuckles. "Well, that's simple. We have an UMP inhibiting transmitter at the ready in case any Pokemon try to break in or out, and we have light refractors in the walls and roof of the place. Anyone who looks from the outside only sees a dense cluster of trees." He explains, to which I nod. That explains the shimmering when I looked at the outside of the place. The UMP inhibitor's gonna pose a problem, though.

"Alright, thanks for your time, dude. Now if you'll excuse me, there's a Volcarona that I'd like to have a chat with." I smirk, getting up and off the chair I was sitting on. "Sure thing, kid. That'll be three bucks for the shot." He replies, to which I nod and place three coins on the table. "Good luck. She isn't cheap, and everyone's either got a reservation, or someone's banging her right now." He calls out to me as I leave, to which I nod before swiftly making myself scarce.

"That guy was unbearable! How the hell did you manage that talk?" The Venipede asks, as I walk over to where the elevators would most likely be. "I don't know. He was such a prick." I sigh, seeing an elevator that would lead me to the lower floors of the Battle Club. Pressing the button for the floor that the brothel was on, I step in and press the button to close the steel doors. "I hope we get to kick his ass later. He deserves it." The Sewaddle spits, to which I nod. "You just spoke my mind." I reply, agreeing with her comment.

As the elevator begins to descend, Katrina speaks up. "Might I ask where we are going, Jay?" She questions, to which I point to the icon of a human taking a Pokemon from behind. "Like I said. I have a Volcarona to have a chat with." I reply, hearing Alita gasp as I say that. "You bastard! You're going to fuck her, aren't you!" She accuses, making me roll my eyes. "What? No, I'm just going to rent her for a couple of hours until the match starts." I tell her, which only serves to anger the Sewaddle on my shoulder. "You're seriously going to rape her!?" She yells, looking at me with an expression of rage, while the Venipede gives me an appalled look.

"For the last time, no. You'll see what I want to do when we get there. It's not sex related, I promise." I tell them, getting them to be quiet for now as the elevator doors open. Looking around and seeing the multitude of rooms and hearing moaning, grunting and beds creaking within, I figure I'm in the right place. Once I step out, I see a woman operating the brothel counter, with a neon sign saying 'Poke Sluts' hanging from the roof. She gives me a bright smile as she eyes me, like we weren't in a brothel and that everything was perfectly fine.

"Hello sir, and welcome to the Poke Sluts Whorehouse. Take a look at our selection of Poke Pussy, and see if you can choose one to have." She says, handing me a list of the various Pokemon they have for fucking. I can see a wide range of Pokemon, including a Leavanny, a Scolipede and a Mightyena. They're not booked at all, and are free for the rest of the day up until after the big fight. Amongst them I see that the reservation for the popular Volcarona is filled up, and I sigh. "Well, I was hoping that I could have some fun with this Volcarona here, but it looks like she's all booked." I sigh, seeing her nod.

"That is unfortunate, sir. But if you can pay the right price, I could make a special reservation just for you." She replies with a cheeky smile, getting me to sigh as I pull out my wallet. It's always about the money, huh? "Alright. How much?" I ask her, to which she pulls out a calculator. After a couple seconds of fast inputs, she hands me the final calculation of 1000 dollars an hour. "I'll be renting her for three hours, so this should be enough." I tell her as I pull out 3000 dollars out of my wallet and hand them to her, seeing her grin happily as she takes the money from my hands.

"Alright then, sir. Just wait a few minutes for the last customer to be done with her, and then you'll have her all to yourself for the next three hours." She nods to me, crossing out all of the other reservations on the board. Nodding in thanks, I take a seat on one of the benches provided and try my best to ignore the sounds of grunting, creaking and Pokemon moaning in the background. However, that's pretty hard to do, from the sounds that are coming from some of them.

"Your cock feels so good! Please… harder, harder!" I suddenly hear from the closest room, voiced in a moaning yip. From what I can hear, the Pokemon being boned is most likely the Mightyena from the selection list. "Ahh! Right there, take me right there!" I hear another female Pokemon moaning happily from the chambers, making me groan as I feel my soldier hardening in response to the sounds. I shouldn't be turned on by this, damn it! This is just wrong.

"Are those humans seriously raping those Pokemon!?" The Sewaddle gasps when she hears the moans of the Pokemon within, the Venipede nodding to confirm her friend's guess. "This is unsettling, to say the least." Katrina speaks up, allowing me to hear the disgust and horror in her voice. Lily is shocked into silence, the sounds of silent weeping the only sounds from her. "Ah'll say. This is just plain wrong." Cleo adds, while Dani affirms the statement of the Mareep. "God, that's just so messed up!" She growls, getting Alita to sigh. "Ya think!? God, these humans are disgusting!" She hisses angrily, getting me to nod in agreement.

"Just grin and bear it, team. Their turn will be up soon, and we'll get to go next." I tell them, before Nesia speaks up again. "I still don't get what you're planning." She tells me, to which I sigh. "I want to help the Volcarona, especially since she's going to be fucked for three and a half hours straight. You saw the schedule, right? Trust me on this one, 'kay? For now, just try and ignore the sounds coming from those rooms." I reply, before I try to comfort the crying Petilil. "You okay, Lily?" I ask her, getting her to sniff as she hears my voice. "Isn't mating supposed to be how Pokemon show love towards each other? It's not right…" She chokes, weeping again as my smile falters and gives way to sadness.

"I'm so sorry you had to hear this, Lily. We humans are the worst, huh?" I reply as I look at her from the screen on my TBA, trying my best to console her. However, from how she's crying, my efforts seem to be in vain. What happens next is what I hadn't expected, though. Lily shakes her head at me in reply, a small smile on her face despite her tears. "You're not the worst, Sir." She replies, getting Chell and Nesia to nod. "Like hell you are! Stop beating yourself up for a problem that isn't your fault!" Alita yells at me, while Dani nods.

"They're right, you know. You're nothing like those pieces of shit in there, Jay." She adds, while Cleo nods. "Yer nothin' like 'em, Jay! So don't think fer a second that you are!" She berates me, getting me to look at the team in thanks. "For every bad person in the world, there is also a good one. What these humans do is not your fault." Katrina comforts me, getting me to chuckle.

"Thanks everyone. I tried to comfort Lily, but I guess I needed some of that positivity, huh?" I grin, seeing the team smile at me in kind. "Master thinks about human problems too much. I don't like seeing Master sad, so Master needs to stop thinking about bad humans." Nesia demands, getting me to chuckle. "Alright, Ness. I'll stop thinking about it. In return, however, I'd like to say more puns. Is that okay with you?" I grin cheekily as I put out my request, to which Nesia is quick to shut me down with a plain and simple answer.

"No." She replies, getting me to huff. "Oh, come on! I think it's a fair deal!" I plead my case, which gets denied further by Alita. "It's not a fair deal, you idiot. We all hate your puns, and I think our happiness is a little more important that your happiness." She adds, while the Venipede seconds that notion. "She's right. Your puns kinda suck, to be honest." She tells me, getting me to look pleadingly towards Lily. Surely you wouldn't turn your back on me, right Lily?" I ask the Petilil, who shyly looks away.

"I think I have to agree with them, Sir. I'm sorry..." She shakes her head my way, making me mock pout. "Aw, man! But puns are funny!" I whine, getting the Sewaddle to sigh as she observes my antics. They seemed initially shocked when they had heard the responses of my team, but they seem to have recovered. "I have no idea how those Pokemon tolerate you." She speaks up, getting Alita to nod. "I feel ya, sister. He's really annoying to deal with." The Tranquill sighs, getting me to shrug. "No, I'm not. I don't bug you that often." I chuckle, hearing Alita groan as she hears the joke.

"See!? That is exactly what I mean!" She huffs, while the Sewaddle spews silk onto my neck. "That was such a bad joke, human! Stop it!" She fumes, while the Venipede sighs. "God, that joke sucked." She adds, making me sigh as I cross my arms. Chell smiles in response to the joke, while Cleo snorts. "Now that was funny!" She giggles, to which I gesture to the Dewott and the laughing Mareep. "See? At least these two have good humor." I pout, making Nesia roll her eyes with a cute smile.

Just as I say that, I see the doors of the chambers all opening at once. Men, more than one of them coming from one particular chamber, all exit one after the other and all with a noticeable bulge in their pants. They're all chatting and looking quite satisfied, some males even with a clear, sticky liquid on their lips and cheeks. The smell of male musk and feminine aromas fill the waiting area, and they each walk past me and use the elevator to leave the premises.

As they leave, the receptionist calls out to me. "Sir, the Volcarona is ready for you now. Enter the room three spaces from the hall to the left." She tells me, getting me to look towards the room she had described. Sure enough, it's the room that the group of men had sauntered out of. The smell of sex and sweat gets stronger as I walk closer, getting the Sewaddle and the Venipede to reel in disgust.

"God, that smells awful! That's what sex smells like!?" The Sewaddle coughs, making me shake my head in reply. "Not really. It depends on what you eat, what you drink, and what you are, but that's not important right now. What's important right now is that we help that Volcarona." I reply, walking into the room to see a giant, six winged moth Pokemon on a stained bed. Her wings and her body are covered in cum stains that contrast from her red wings and blue abdomen, while fresh sperm is dribbling from her mouth, pussy and anus. Her coat is also matted and dirty, with whiter spots and darker blotches here and there. She's panting hard and twitching slightly as she lies there on the bed, a collar around her neck which leads to a chain on the wall behind her. She looks like she's been abused for a very long time, if her gaping holes and cum covered body is anything to go by.

"She looks horrible!" Dani gasps, appalled by the sight of such a powerful creature being reduced to no more than a common street whore. "So this is what humans can do to defile a Pokemon? This is truly awful." Katrina comments, speaking for us all as her voice conveys nothing but sorrow and empathy towards the poor Bug Type. This is why places like these aren't good news. More often than not, the Pokemon are held here against their will, and are forced to endure rape for hours on end.

I quickly close the door to the room, and sit down on the bed next to the abused Volcarona. Once I sit down, she turns her head to face me with a smile and forced bedroom eyes. "Hello, human. I haven't seen you here before." She addresses me, making me look at her with worry and empathy. She doesn't seem to want this, but she's giving me the seductive look anyways. Has she seriously been conditioned to accept her current state of being?

Seeing my concern, she looks at me with an expression of confusion before smiling as usual. "There's no need to feel ashamed, human. You can use me to sate your desires however you wish." She reassures me as she shows me her used holes, awaiting my next move. "Don't show me your areas. I'm not here for that. I need you to get on the floor for me." I tell her, reaching into my backpack. "I understand. Do with me as you wish." She replies, most likely expecting some kinkier play from me.

However, what I do next is completely out of her expectations. Taking a washcloth, soap and a bottle of water out of my backpack, I fight the rising blush on my cheeks as I apply some water and wet her body, making her gasp in surprise as she feels the slightly cool touch of the material on her body. "Human? What are you doing?" She asks, to which I gesture to the soap. "I'm going to clean you up." I reply, getting her to tilt her head on confusion. "Clean me? But why?" She asks, getting me to gesture to her body before applying soap to the cloth.

"No Pokemon should have to suffer like this. That's why I'm not going to have sex with you. I wanna help." I tell her, rubbing the soap into her coat and onto her body and wings. I make sure to take extra care of the wings as I clean her, allowing her wings to be completely covered in suds. Once she's soaped up, I call Chell out of the TBA. She seems to be happy to be out of there, but she averts her gaze from mine regardless.

"Heya, kiddo. I ran outta water, so could you help me hose her down? Try not to shoot too hard, though. I don't want to hurt her." I ask the Dewott, who nods as she gently sprays the Fire Moth Pokemon with her Water Gun, gently letting loose the water onto the body of the large moth. The Volcarona winces as Chell sprays her with water, but she doesn't try to run from the stream. The soap quickly slides off her body, allowing me to take out a second towel to wipe her dry. "Thanks, kiddo." I nod to Chell who smiles to me in return. At least she's smiling again.

The Volcarona asks me, her positivity now faltering and her form tensing up as she eyes me. "I'm cleaning you up. Relax, and let me do my work." I soothe, drying her body off as she nods in response. Once she's dry, she looks to me with a thankful gaze, although her eyes also carry hints of uncertainty. "Why are you here, then?" She asks me finally, after a moment of silence as I work.

"Well, I've bought out the next three hours of your time. So, you're stuck with me until the big match goes up tonight." I explain, to which she nods. "So, if you aren't mating with me, then why did you use your money on me?" She asks me, to which I look her in the eyes as I dry her furry upper torso. "I did it so that other people won't be able to rape you." I tell her, the Venipede and Sewaddle looking at me in surprise.

"So that's what your plan was? And here I thought you were lying and just going to fuck her." The Venipede speaks up, making me frown as I look at her. "Seriously? Since when did your opinion of me drop so freaking low?" I sigh, getting the Sewaddle to shrug, despite lacking the anatomy to do so. "Well, you can't blame us for doubting you. Your kind took our friends and family away, remember?" She states matter-of-factly, getting me to nod. "Point taken."

Looking back to the Volcarona, I tell her the second part of my plan. "Also, we're breaking you out of here. All of you are going to be free." I tell her, making her eyes shine with hope as she hears those words, but it is soon lost in the sea of doubt again. "No." She finally says after a bit of thought, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "What?" I ask, to which she shakes her head no.

"It's fine here. Besides, those humans told me that they'd hurt me for an entire week if I left. I tried that, and I don't want that to happen again." She smiles shakily, her words obviously forced and lacking truth. "What? She's actually going to stay her willingly?" Nesia whispers, while the Bug Types and Chell look at her in worry. In response, I look her dead in the eyes. "You're a Volcarona, a powerful Pokemon whose power rivals the sun. You deserve to be free above all else because you're a living being! Those humans have no right to keep you here or do this to you!" I coax her, getting her to stop in her tracks as she looks at me. That hope is starting to return again, proving to me that this isn't what she wants.

"Repeat after me, so you remember. You deserve to be free." I tell her, getting her to say those words with me. "I deserve… to be free." She repeats, her voice already breaking. "Say it again." I tell her, seeing her to shed a few tears as she repeats what I had said. "I… I deserve to be… free." She repeats, getting me to nod. "Again." I tell her, to which she shakily repeats what I had told her to. "I… I deserve to be… to be…" She chokes, that being all she could take as she sobs loudly. In reply, I quickly reach out to hug her body gently, allowing her to cry into my chest as I stroke her back gently.

Finally, after a while of sobbing, the Volcarona finally looks me in the eyes with hers, albeit tear-stained and puffy. "Are you really going to free us? Is this more than a trick?" She sniffs as she asks pleadingly, making me nod. "I will, and that's a promise I intend to keep. No tricks from me." I reply, getting her to smile genuinely at me as she hugs me with her appendages. However, I hear her stomach growling. "Someone's hungry. Now, how about some berries?" I suggest, taking out my berry box. She doesn't need to be told twice, quickly devouring the berries within as happy tears leak from her eyes.

Once she's done eating, I smile at her before I put the box away. "Thank you, human. No one has ever been this kind to me for a long time." She tells me, getting me to stroke her back again. "And trust me, you'll always be treated like this once we're outta here." I assure her, before the door suddenly flings open and draws our attention to the person now standing in the hallway. "Who the fuck is using my toy!?" I hear the guy say, before both our eyes meet and mine narrow. "You." I growl in anger as I lay eyes on the last person I had wanted to see here.


	57. Chapter 57

Chapter 57

[Jay]

So far, my exploration into the Pokemon hellhole that was the Deep Forest Underground Battle Cub was all that I had expected. Pokemon being sold into slavery and forced into being prostitutes? Check. Lots of muscle brained, sick bastards that see Pokemon as no more than the average replaceable item? Check. Shady men wearing trench coats that eye your conversations with random people? Check, check and check. However, seeing this guy here is the last thing I had expected. Chell's eyes narrow at the sight of him, mirroring my hatred for the guy.

"Hello, Jay. I had not expected you to be here, of all places. You couldn't get your sister to ride you, so you settle for a Pokemon instead? You sick freak." He snickers, making me roll my eyes. "At least I have people who care about me, moron. You only have your money and that ugly mug of yours. Hell, no one in their right mind would even look at you." I shoot back, getting the rich, snot nosed prick of a person that is Jimmy to growl in response. However, my insult goes largely ignored.

"That minor insult aside, I'm afraid that I've already paid for my turn with her. So, I suggest you see yourself out." He smirks darkly, while I notice the Volcarona shaking in fear behind me. Seeing her scared of the little prick like this makes me fume, as I can guess that he has some pretty nasty fantasies regarding the helpless Bug Type. So, I decide to intervene before the Volcarona gets raped anymore.

"Sorry, dick weed. She's taken for now. I paid extra just to see her, and I'm not about to let you rape her again." I reply, holding my arm out in a defensive stance to protect the giant moth Pokemon, who looks to me with a hopeful gaze. Hearing this, Jimmy simply laughs. "Did you really think you could best me with money of all things, peasant? I have so much more than you ever will have in your entire pathetic life, Jay!" He cackles, getting me to curse under my breath. Damn it, he's right.

"Now step aside. I have a Pokemon waiting to worship my dick." He grins as he eyes the frightened Volcarona with a perverted gaze, his member already hardening in his pants. "This isn't good! He'll get to rape her again, with how this is going!" The Venipede yelps, while the Sewaddle nods. "The situation does not seem to be in our favor, Jay." Katrina adds, allowing me to hear the nervousness in her voice. Shit, she's right! I've gotta get his attention if I wanna save the Volcarona! What to do, what to do… Wait! That's it! I've got a plan. In order to initiate the plan, I simply laugh and point to his crotch.

"With that!? Dude, leave the jokes to me!" I laugh, seeing his facial expression scrunch up into one of confusion. "What are you talking about? Have you finally gone mad, Jay?" Jimmy asks, getting me to point to his dick. "I meant your dick! Seriously, you couldn't even please a Joltik with that thing!" I snicker, getting his confusion to quickly morph into embarrassment and anger as he quickly lifts his hands to cover his length. I was partially lying about how small he was down there, but let's just say that he wasn't going to be pleasing any girls anytime soon.

"Shut up! My doctor told me that my penis is of above average length!" He retorts feebly as his face heats up, making me laugh harder. "Yeah, for Asians maybe! That thing looks like it's only four inches! Scratch that, it's small even for Asians!" I guffaw, making his face turn three shades redder as he fumes at me, but fails to counteract my insults. I crack open one eye to see his current mental agitation, and I can tell that he's pretty close to bursting with rage. Now I just need to push him a little further…

"Is that why you're such a dick to everyone you meet, Jimmy? Are you trying to compensate for something you're lacking down there?" I snicker as tears of mirth roll down my cheeks, which finally pushes him past his tolerance limit. Granted, his tolerance for insults of any nature was low to begin with, but still. Screaming in anger and his frustration of having a small dick, he points a finger my way as he fumes with anger. Yup. His fragile ego has been dented, and his patience has snapped like a twig.

"That is it! The Battle Club dome, right fucking now!" He yells at me, making me sigh as I stop laughing. "What? Wanna fist fight like the old days, needle dick?" I chuckle, just to egg him on even further. "Argh! You know what I want, you moron! A Pokemon Battle with my new Pokemon, to show that I'm better than you!" Oh, he's really pissed now. "Nah, I'm still better than you. There's no way you'll beat me with a dick that small." I laugh, getting him to angrily stomp out of the room with a red face. However, the fact that he has new Pokemon kinda worries me.

"Heh, what a chump. He fell for it hook, line and sinker." I smirk, getting Chell to cough. Looking her way, I can see a blush spread out on her features. "What's with the red face, kid?" I ask her, to which she hesitates for a while before she replies. "Mister Jay, are you really bigger than that down there?" She timidly whispers, making me chuckle before I pat her head. "Eh, you don't need to worry about me not being adequate down there. Just know that I'm pretty well endowed for a human." I reply, leaving it at that.

"Still, did you have to use something so dumb just to get him to not fuck the bug? Come on, you idiot." Alita sighs, getting me to gasp. "Take that back! The size of a guy's penis is just as symbolic to us humans as head plumage is for male Unfezant!" I retort, getting the Tranquill to scoff. "Yeah, right!" She replies, before I lock eyes with the Volcarona again. I can already see an expression of gratitude on her face, as well as the relieved sigh that she made the second Jimmy left the room.

"Don't worry, you're safe now." I nod to her, getting her to smile my way in thanks. "Thank you, human. I was so worried that he was going to have his way with me again." She replies, while the rest of the team heaves a sigh of relief. "Whew, that was a close one!" Cleo comments, while Katrina nods. "While I agree that the method used to distract him from the Volcarona was rather vulgar, it still was an effective plan." She adds, while the Sewaddle simply stares at me in confusion.

"Who the hell was that?" She asks, to which the Venipede looks to me as well. "He seemed to know you, Jay. Who was he?" She adds, getting me to nod. "Yeah, I know 'em. He's one hell of an asshole. I had to deal with his stupid bitch ass for most of my younger days, sadly enough. Luckily for me, he wasn't too smart for such a powerful kid. He has the power, he just doesn't have the slightest idea how to use it." I explain, before I look at the giant fire moth again.

"I'm going to leave and fight that guy, and get things sorted out. Then, I'll help all of you get outta here." I tell her, to which she gets wide eyed and fearful again. "Wait! Please don't leave, human! What if someone else comes!?" She cries, struggling to free herself of the collar and chain. However, the metal holds firm, stopping her from doing anything other than tugging uselessly at her binds. Seeing her so desperate and scared for her own life makes me feel guilty for leaving, but I know that this is something I need to get done if I want to have any chance of freeing her.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go or else he'll know something's up. I'll find a way to get you out of here, I promise. Wait for me, alright?" I assure her, getting her to nod as tears brim in the corners of her eyes. "Please hurry!" She calls out to me on last time before I leave her chamber, causing me to walk to the elevator much faster than I had anticipated. I can't break my promise and leave her here to rot. I just can't. Meanwhile, Chell looks to me with an expression of worry. It seems that she's picked up on my concern. "Don't worry, kiddo. We just have to kick Jimmy's ass again. It's not that hard." I smile at her, trying not showing her any sign of my uncertainty as we ascend to the Battle Dome.

"Yeah, Chell! We mopped the floor with him last time, and we'll do it again this time!" Alita assures her friend, while Cleo sighs. "Ah hope you win too, but the fact that he said he switched up his team worries me." She admits, getting Nesia to nod as well. "His new Pokemon might prove to be a problem for us." She adds, getting Dani to smirk in response. "I don't think they'll be that big of a problem. We'll kick his ass, no sweat!" She retorts, while Lily sighs. "I think you're being a little too confident, Dani." She comments, to which I grin.

"Don't worry about it. I'll make sure we win." I assure the Petilil, who nods as she hears me say that. "I hope so, Sir." She sighs, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "Aw, come on Lily! I thought you actually believed in me a little more than that." I frown, to which the Grass Types begins to panic as she hears my displeasure. "N-no, wait! I didn't mean that! I meant that you aren't bad at helping! No, wait! I-I meant… I meant…!" She stutters quickly, making me chuckle.

"I know you believe in me, Lily. I was just joking around." I assure her, to which she smiles in relief. "Geez, you're such an ass. Making fun of someone so innocent like that…" The Sewaddle mutters, getting me to sigh. "Sorry, okay? It was all in good fun. Don't let that bug you too much." I grin, getting both Bug Types, as well as Alita to groan. "Ugh, really!? At a time like this!?" Alita yells at me, while the Venipede sighs in exasperation. Nesia rolls her eyes, while Cleo and Katrina giggle.

"Stop it, Jay! That was so bad!" She sighs, although judging by her smile she doesn't really seem to mind the poor taste of humor that I have. The Sewaddle isn't having any of my shit, however, as she promptly bites my shoulder. "Ow!" I wince, while the Bug Type simply glares at me. "You better not make any more of those dumbass puns, or I swear to god I'll kick your ass!" She warns, making me frown. "But they're funny!" I whine, while Chell giggles at my distress and the rage of her fellow Pokemon. "Gosh, that was bad!" Cleo snorts, having found my joke funny.

The elevator comes to a halt, and the doors open to reveal the top floor of the Battle Club. I immediately set my sight s on the Battle Dome in the middle, and quickly take off into a brisk walk towards the Dome entrance with Chell in tow. As soon as we enter, we're greeted by the sight of none other than Jimmy himself on the other side of the arena, with only a few spectators in the seats of the spectator view for now. It seems that there aren't any betting fights right now. I notice there's a cage surrounding the field. "Geez, that looks scary." Dani gulps, making me nod. "Yeah. That cage keeps the Pokemon in, so fights to the death actually happen." I reply, before Jimmy interrupts me.

"What took you so long, Jay? Were you too scared to fight me, or did you want that slut of a Pokemon to blow you one last time before you left?" The little prick snickers, making me roll my eyes and sigh as I hear his insults again. However, the part about the Volcarona makes me angrier than I normally would be at the little shit. I'll make him pay for saying that. "Whatever you say, dumbass. Just let me end this quick so I can leave. You've already wasted enough of my time today." I groan, making him glare at me as he pulls out his first Premier Ball.

"I'll make you regret that! Go, Beedrill!" He yells, throwing out his Pokeball onto the ground in front of him. The capsule opens, revealing the stinger-wielding bee Pokemon in a flash of light. It buzzes angrily at us and brandishes it's needles, but its gaze doesn't seem to be as angry as you'd see with typical Beedrill. In fact, it almost seems to be tame compared to wild Beedrill. It's just the result of being forced into being nothing more than a fighting machine.

Scowling, I quickly lift up my TBA and address the team. "So, who wants to go up against that bee over there?" I ask them while pointing to the Beedrill, hearing Lily immediately yelp and hide behind Dani. The Cottonee looks to me with a shrug, despite her lacking the shoulders necessary to do so. "Let me at 'em! I'll beat his ass into next week!" Alita boasts, smirking at me in obvious confidence for this fight. Sighing, I set my sights on Cleo. "Cleo, you feel up for this?" I ask the Mareep, who nods in reply. "Ah'm ready when you are, Jay. Let's get this show on the road!" She nods, while I see Alita huff.

"Damn it! I wanted to kick some ass, Jay!" She glares at me as she hears my final choice, getting me to look at her pleadingly. "Come on, Ali. Cleo needs some experience too, ya know. Besides, you don't need to fight for me to know you're one tough cookie." I reason with her, getting her to nod as her gaze softens. "Alright, fine. I'm backing down only because you have a good point, though. Go get 'em, Cleo!" She looks to the Mareep, a smirk on her face. "Don't worry 'bout me, Ali. Ah'll win this one, no sweat!" Cleo replies, returning the smirk in kind before I press the button to materialize her in front of me.

Once she's out of the TBA, she shakes her head to clear it. "Yeesh. That whole materializin' thing feels weird." She shudders, getting me to chuckle apologetically. "Oh, yeah. Kinda forgot to tell you about that." I grin wryly her way, to which she shakes her head. "It ain't that important right now. What's important, is that we kick Jimmy's ass right inta next week!" She smirks my way, making me grin in return. "Took the words right outta my mouth." I reply, Cleo taking her side on the field as she stares down the Beedrill. Both doors to the cage lock once she's inside, making me feel a little nervous about this.

Meanwhile, Jimmy groans as he finally sees my Pokemon out of the TBA and into the arena. "Ugh, finally! Still going on about that whole giving your Pokemon a choice thing!? You really should just get into the swing of things, dude." He speaks up, gesturing to the two Pokemon in the cage right now. "These animals aren't any good outside of fighting each other, so why even bother? It's not like they care about that, anyways!" He sighs, lecturing me and mentioning the notion that Pokemon aren't sentient like it's the most natural thing in the world. God, I hate him. Judging by the glare Cleo's sending his way, she feels exactly what I'm feeling for the guy.

"Cleo, Thunder!" I yell, quickly interrupting Jimmy's speech and grabbing his attention as Cleo quickly launches a powerful blast of lightning directly skyward. The little bastard and the Beedrill are equally caught off guard by the sudden and powerful jolt of lightning coming from the sheep Pokemon, but as soon as Jimmy sees where the bolt is headed, he breaks out laughing. "Seriously, Jay!? You should work on your aim, 'cause that missed by a mile!" He cackles, completely unaware that Thunderbolt was not the Electric Type move I had commanded Cleo to use.

"Now, Beedrill! Use-" Jimmy begins to command his Pokemon to rush in and attack, but he fails to realize that a bolt of lightning had struck his Beedrill down before the Pokemon could do anything else. "What the fuck!?" Jimmy yells, completely taken by surprise by the sudden lighting strike. A loud booming crackle sounds as the electricity crashes down onto the unsuspecting Pokemon, frying it and causing it to crumple to the ground. A few weak twitches later, it slumps to the floor of the arena completely, putting it out of commission. I'm quickly taken aback by the power of that move myself. I hadn't expected that to hit as hard as it did. The sizeable crowd that has gathered cheers loudly, having grouped together during our confrontation.

"Nice work, Cleo!" I cheer, pumping a fist into the air as Jimmy begins to recover from his shock of seeing his Pokemon get fried. "Buh… Wha…?" He stutters, completely at a loss due to what had just happened. "Aw shucks, Jay. It wasn't much." Cleo chuckles in reply, blushing in embarrassment as I praise her. "Nice work, Cleo!" Chell cheers, seeing her friend take out the Beedrill so quickly making her smile as well. However, Jimmy isn't too pleased as he finally gains his voice back.

"You fucking stupid ingrate! I was kind enough to share with you my wisdom, and this is what you do to me in return!?" Jimmy yells angrily at me, his rage of having his first Pokemon dropped so easily making me smirk as I shrug. "We were in a fight, remember? You can monologue all you want, but I'm not going to just let you spout your crap off for free. I saw a chance to end the fight quickly, so I did. Besides, that spiel about how Pokemon aren't feeling like we are is a load of shit." I reply, completely ignoring the anger directed my way by the pompous asshole.

"You got lucky, peasant! You won't do that again!" He yells, determined to kick my ass. "Unless I want to." I reply, making the Venipede giggle at my comeback towards the jerk. Meanwhile, the Sewaddle seems to have quieted down for now as she looks my way with an unreadable expression. Jimmy seems to be even more ticked off at my response, as I see him fuming even more as his face turns three shades redder from anger. Nevertheless, he yanks out another Premiere Ball from his belt.

"You're going to regret that, Jay! Go, Seismitoad!" He yells, throwing out a Pokeball to reveal the large Vibration Pokemon making its entry into the fight. It snorts as it eyes Cleo, the Mareep immediately looking quite fearful of the large creature. This isn't good at all. With how tough these things normally are, even an idiot like Jimmy could do massive damage with one. Not to mention Seismitoad have the ability to vibrate their fists to make their punches stronger.

"Holy crap, that's one big guy!" Dani gulps, making Lily squeak in fright and quickly dashing off to take refuge behind her Cottonee friend. "This does not look good." Katrina comments, letting no shortage of concern seep through her voice. Meanwhile, Alita looks at the large toad Pokemon in interest. "What's that?" She asks, making me face palm. "That's a Seismitoad. These things have the force to dust large boulders in a single punch." I explain, making her gawk.

"What's the matter, Jay!? Scared?" The idiot in question laughs, making me sigh and ignore him. "Cleo, come back!" I call out to her, getting the Mareep to come back to me. "Yeah, Jay? What is it?" She asks, getting me to gesture to the opposing Vibration Pokemon. "You're not going to be able to even tickle that thing, so I'm going to send someone else in instead. Besides, you seem scared of the big guy, so you can sit this one out." I explain, getting her to nod thankfully. That hulking Water Type is at least 1.7 meters tall, so I don't blame her for being scared.

"Thanks, Jay. Ah owe ya one." She heaves a sigh of relief, quickly plopping herself down onto the ground next to me. Nodding in reply, I pat her on the head, getting her to smile my way. "Eh, don't mention it." I shake my head, while the Venipede and the Sewaddle smirk as well. "You really care about them, don't you?" The Venipede comments while she gestures to Cleo and Chell, getting me to smile before turning to look at the TBA. More specifically, I turn my attention to Nesia.

"Hey, Ness. Feel like kicking the crap outta Big Blue over there for me?" I ask the Servine, who nods in reply. "Yes, Master." She nods, preparing to be materialized onto the field. "Come on, Jay! I'm tired of waiting for your stupid ass! Or are you too much of a pussy to fight me!?" Jimmy crows, making Chell's paws clench in rage as she hears the guy insult me. Nesia's expression darkens as well, her scowl dripping with enough hatred to make even a Happiny stop smiling.

"I'll fight him, Mister Jay." Chell informs me all of a sudden, stepping out onto the field in front of me and drawing her scalchops. Worried for her own well being, I stop her with a hand on her shoulder. "Wait a sec, Chell. You sure about this? He's gonna be tough to cut through, even for you. On top of that, those vibrating punches of his can be devastating. No offense, but Nesia has a better chance here." I reason with her, getting her to look my way with a determined glare.

"Let me do this for you, Jay. He insulted you, and I won't stand for that." She firmly assures me, getting me to nod and release her. "Well, if you feel so strongly about it. Go ahead, then. I can't promise you'll be completely fine after this, though." I smirk jokingly, making her smile in return. "Don't worry. I'll be fine." She replies, stepping onto the battlefield and glaring daggers at the opposition. Jimmy smirks in response to his Pokemon's new opponent, shaking his head at me.

"Still keeping that pathetic starter Pokemon of yours, peasant? I'd be willing to bet that you're keeping that Snivy I threw away, too!" He cackles, pointing at Chell. "See!? She's barely even half the size of my Pokemon, and she's only got those little knives to protect herself! What a joke!" The Seismitoad seems to agree with the little arrogant moron, snorting in amusement at the smaller Water Type. Their laughter only serves to anger Chell further, the Dewott gripping her shell blades tighter than ever. She's ready to smash that overgrown toad into the ground, and so am I.

"Chell, use Water Pulse and aim for it's head!" I yell, Chell quickly forming a ball of pressurized water in her hand. Once it reaches a sufficient size, she lobs the sphere directly at the Seismitoad's head. "Use Drain Punch! Smash that pathetic Dewott into the ground!" Jimmy yells, the large Pokemon smashing through the attempt to stun it with ease. The Water Pulse is immediately vibrated into droplets upon connecting with the fist of the Seismitoad, the harmless spray drenching the Vibration Pokemon.

"This isn't looking too good." I gulp, Cleo gawking at the display of raw strength. "He just broke that attack like it was nothin'!" Cleo yelps, while Chell is also stunned at the force of the impact from the Seismitoad's fist. "Crap! He just punched through it without breaking a sweat!" Alita yells, allowing her tone of voice to convey her panic. My initial intention was to stun it, but it seems that won't be a viable option. Well, if I can't stun it, might as well take a chance.

"Any other ideas!?" Dani calls out to me urgently, making me nod. "Yeah, I do! Chell, run up to it!" I yell, Chell wasting no time in rushing headlong at the lumbering mountain of muscle. "What the hell are you doing!? She's gonna die if she gets too close!" The Venipede yells, seeing no point in my sudden command. "I know, but it's the only option I have left. Jimmy's sure as hell not going to let me switch out, that's for sure." I reply, letting her hear the desperation in my voice. To be honest, I'm not too sure if my idea's gonna work, either.

"Forfeiting the match, Jay? I get it, you're too weak to fight me! You already know there's no way you can win!" Jimmy cackles, the moron unsuspecting of my next move. "Chell, use Fury Cutter on it's legs!" I yell, Chell quickly dashing towards the large Water and Ground Type with her blades glowing a sickly green color. "Drain Punch that otter into next week!" Jimmy commands, the Seismitoad beginning to vibrate one of it's massive arms and swinging it towards Chell.

"Chell, duck! Slice the legs as you go!" I yell, Chell quickly lowering her stance, causing the massive arm to miss her by a hair. "It's beneath you, moron! Hit it!" Jimmy shrieks, trying to get the hulking giant of a Pokemon to stomp on Chell. However, it's far too slow to react to the Dewott underneath it. Now in the clear, she then takes a slice at the exposed leg of the larger Pokemon, who grunts in response to the contact. However, only a shallow cut results from all of the effort Chell had put in to hurt it. Jimmy blankly stares for a moment, before he bursts out laughing.

"That was your brilliant move, Jay!? To give my Pokemon a paper cut!? My god, that's hilarious!" He laughs, while the large Vibration Pokemon chortles in amusement. "You gonna give up now?" Jimmy teases, making Chell growl at him in defiance. "Nope. Chell, again! Hit it's legs with Fury Cutter, and wait for my signal to dodge it's blows!" I shout to her, getting her to raise her weapons and charge at the Seismitoad again. Jimmy scowls once he hears my reply, his face showing annoyance.

"Fine, then. Seismitoad, Drain Punch again!" He commands, the large Pokemon once again trying to connect it's fist into the Dewott that cut it. It's using it's left arm to swing this time. "Dodge to the right! Watch the legs!" I order, Chell quickly picking up on what I'm putting down as she steps off to the side, letting the punch swing past her as she takes another cut to the Seismitoad's leg. The large creature grunts, but is otherwise still fighting fit as it tries once again to hit Chell, this time with a downward blow. Gotta keep Chell moving, or else she'll become floor décor!

"Chell, another cut to the same spot! Quick!" I yell, Chell quickly dashing forward again and landing herself another hit onto the sluggish Seismitoad. Meanwhile, the slamming of the fist into the ground kicks up a cloud of dust that just about hides Chell's small form. Her blade slices another gash into the thick skin of the opposing Pokemon, who winces slightly this time. "Don't just stand there! Mud Shot!" Jimmy yells, beginning to lose his patience as Chell slices into his Pokemon again. The Seismitoad lets loose a big blast of mud from it's maw, but the gunk splats off to the side, harmlessly hitting the ground next to the dust cloud.

Rolling off to the side and out of the cloud after the near miss, Chell dashes back in to deliver another slice to the legs. "Come on, you stupid piece of shit! Hit it!" Jimmy screams, the Seismitoad at a loss for what to do. Unable to be seen or hit, Chell gets enough time to land a full combo of slices into the Seismitoad's leg. Yelping in pain, the large toad stumbles backwards, allowing me to see the blood gushing from it's hacked up knee. Geez, that looks like it hurts.

"Come on, Chell! Finish it with X-Scissor!" I yell, Chell charging up her blades while holding them up in a cross pattern. She charges towards the weakened Vibration Pokemon once she's ready, leaping into the air to finish the job. The Seismitoad is too focused on the cloud of dust to realize Chell's above it, and so it doesn't notice until it's too late. She slams both blades into the crown of it's head, leaving a nasty x shaped cut there.

"Yeah! Nice one, kid!" I cheer, seeing the result of all my planning come together. "Yes!" The Venipede yells, having been quite tense and quiet with anxiety during the fight. "Ya got 'em good, Chell!" Cleo whoops, making me grin. However, none of us realize that the Seismitoad isn't beaten yet as it slowly raises its head, and Jimmy yells out another attacking command.

"Hyper Voice, then Mud Shot!" He orders, the Vibration Pokemon opening it's mouth and unleashing a powerful blast of sound. Chell is hit up close by the powerful noise, forcing her off of the front of the titanic toad and slumping to the ground. The Seismitoad then launches another ball of mud at the weak Dewott, dealing even more damage and downing her. "Chell, no! Get up, please!" I yell, seeing her try weakly to get up before she falls back down, the noise most likely still ringing in her ears. Grinning darkly, Jimmy points at the weakened Dewott before he issues his next command.

"Now, Seismitoad. Stomp on it. Crush it's skull!" He cackles, the large toad already lumbering towards Chell with a grin equally as wide. He's gonna do it. He's actually going to kill her! "Hey, quit it! She's already down, you dumbass!" I yell at the little arrogant snob, who chuckles as he gestures to Chell. "I'm afraid I can't do that. You need to be taught a lesson for insulting me!" He cackles maniacally, making me watch in horror as the large Pokemon stomps closer and closer to Chell's limp form.

Fear's really growing in my chest now, making my voice frantic as I try to reason with Jimmy. "Hey, now! She's already harmless! You won, okay!? Just don't hurt her anymore!" I plead, running up to the cage and shaking the bars. "Chell! Come on, kiddo! You've gotta move!" I beg her, hoping against hope that she'd be able to get back up. However, she doesn't even budge an inch from where she's lying.

"This is the price you pay for defying me!" Jimmy laughs wickedly, making me watch as the Seismitoad raises it's large foot to stomp Chell's skull in. "CHELL!" Everyone on my team yells, including me. Time seems to come to a halt as the Seismitoad brings it's foot down, ready to end Chell's life. I've got to do something! But that something requires the use of magic… No! Now isn't the time for second guesses! I've got to do it! I need to save Chell!

"ENOUGH!" I roar, making my eye flash the same shade of light blue all those years ago. Concentrating all of my power, I grab onto the Soul of the large Pokemon, making it let out a croak of shock. "You're not hurting my friend!" I growl, before I slam the Seismitoad against the steel bars of the cage and denting the bars. Everyone watching is awed as I slam it against the bars, again and again. Once I'm done, I pant as I release my hold over the unconscious and bruised giant and let it fall to the floor. For a few moments, everyone is too stunned to comprehend what I just did.

"What… was that?" The Venipede finally breathes, getting me to sigh. "It's magic." I reply, before the sounds of guns being trained on me makes me freeze. "We've got 'em, boss!" One of the gunmen affirms my capture, letting a familiar face walk into view. Most of the spectators are quickly scared off by the appearance of the men, and quickly scatter. Looking around, I can see that I'm outnumbered in a big way. However, what really makes my heart stop is that each gunman and the 'boss' has that damned symbol on their clothes.


	58. Chapter 58

Chapter 58

[Jay]

"Hello, Jay. I'm sure you know what we're here for, don't you?" The leader addresses me with a neutral expression, allowing me to finally lay eye on his features. Hearing what the leader of the gunmen has to say, I smirk. "Heya, Hunter. Good to see you haven't changed over the years, eh?" I regard the Team Rocket Officer, who nods as he leaps over the railing separating the spectators' seats and the actual field with ease. Maintaining his calm and collected expression, he looks down at me once he gets close enough.

"Wait, who are these guys?" The Venipede looks my way, confused as to why this strange man has appeared out of nowhere. "Well, they're part of the organization that I was very well acquainted with." I reply, to which the rest of the team look at the guy in anger, already knowing what I meant by that. "So these are the humans that created you, aren't they?" Katrina speaks up, getting me to nod. "Yup. The very same. They're known as Team Rocket." I affirm her suspicions, getting her to eye Hunter with caution.

"Who's this joker, then? Their leader?" Alita growls, making me shake my head. "Well, kinda. He's one of four Elite Officers that command the rest of the organization. He's second only to their true boss." I tell her, getting Dani to scoff. "He doesn't seem so tough." She scoffs, making me chuckle. "He's dangerous and cunning, not to mention tough. He's the kind of guy that could go toe to toe with a Scizor and come out on top. That's why he's an Elite. He's the best of the best." I explain, getting Dani to gulp as she hears what I have to say about him.

"Wait a sec. Yer sayin' he could win a tussle with a Pokemon!?" The Mareep gawks, getting me to nod. "Yeah. That's how he got the position in the first place." I reply, seeing Hunter come to a stop in front of me. "You do know why I'm here, do you? Or have you suddenly become deaf?" He asks me again, getting me to roll my eyes. "As sarcastic as ever, I see. And to answer your question, yeah. I know what you want. However, I may not be inclined to give it to you." I retort, smiling at the Elite Officer with a shrug.

"Boss? Can we just knock 'em out and bring him in already?" One Grunt groans, his gun still trained on me and stopping me from making any sudden moves. Holding up a hand to silence the guy, Hunter sighs when he gets my answer. "Don't make this any harder on yourself, N-5. There's no need." He tries to reason with me, getting me to smirk angrily at him as my eyes narrow. Oh, he did not just call me that.

"Wait a minute. That's N-5!?" Jimmy yelps, while the Sewaddle and the Venipede look my way in confusion. "N-5? Who's that?" The Sewaddle asks, to which I sigh. "That's me. I'll explain later, but you need to listen up. I'll create a diversion, so all of us can get outta here. There's some air vents overhead, so you can use those to get away if you need to. It's too dangerous with so many other people around, and who knows what they'll do to you." I whisper, to which the Venipede looks to me with a worried expression.

"But-" She starts as the other team members flash me looks of worry, but I quickly interrupt her. "No buts about it. If you wanna live another day, then get ready to go." I warn her, before I activate my magic. My right eye glows a light blue right before I close them both, which grabs the attention of all the Rocket Grunts. "Wait, what's the kid doing?" One of the grunts asks, while Hunter growls. Unlike his ignorant subordinates, he knows full well what I can do. "Brace yourselves!" He warns them, getting the grunts to look at their leader in confusion.

"Brace for what?" Is all that a grunt gets to ask before I grab a hold of their Souls and immediately swing my hand in a downward motion. Corresponding to the movement of my hand, all of the grunts are unceremoniously flung to the floor with a thud. "Gah! What the fuck!?" Yelps of pain are heard around me as the grunts suddenly find their faces playing full time lover with the cold, nasty ass dirt, save for Hunter. He looks like he's having some difficulty doing so, but he's somehow resisting the hold of my magic on his Soul. Well, I guess he is stronger than the average grunt.

Smirking, I lift the Elite Officer into the air with a simple flick of my finger. "Urk!" Hunter chokes, feeling himself being forcefully lifted off the ground by his own Soul. "Sorry it had to come to this, man." I apologize to the guy, before slamming him into the cage of the arena, leaving a sizeable Hunter shaped indent in the steel bars. With them down for now, I quickly run over to the cage in the center of the arena. "Come on, Cleo! We need to go!" I call out to Cleo, as I fling open the door to the cage. Picking Chell's battered body off of the floor, I proceed to run out of the arena.

"Stop him!" I hear the grunts yell angrily as he points at me, getting the attention of quite a few people watching from outside the arena. However, they aren't as inclined to help out the Team Rocket members catch me. However, Hunter recovers quickly and knows how to get the bystanders on his side. "Whoever catches that kid gets a reward of 100,000 dollars!" He yells, making everyone immediately turn their heads in my direction with an evil grin. My face immediately pales when I see the amount of people staring hungrily at me.

"Uh oh. This ain't lookin' too good." Cleo gulps, making me nod as I look around, desperately trying to find any sort of way out of this mess. Noticing an empty spot, I quickly get an idea in my head. "Grab onto my leg!" I quickly yell, right before quite a few people charge, leap and run at me all at once in an attempt to dog pile me. However, my magic comes to the rescue once again, allowing me to teleport out of there and getting those idiots to smack into each other as they try to hold down their ticket to 100,000 dollars that isn't even there anymore.

"Mister Jay…" I hear Chell croak as she cracks open her eyes, showing me her saddened and tearful gaze as I gently cradle her beaten body. "Save your strength for later, eh kiddo? You did pretty good, for a fight against something monstrous like that." I assure her, making her even sadder as the tears leaks down her cheeks. "You had to save me by using your magic, all because I wasn't focused. You're in big trouble now, because of me…" She chokes, crying pitifully as she conveys her guilt.

"I must redeem myself for failing you, Jay. Let me do this one last thing for you…" Chell tells me, steeling herself as she raises her scalchop upwards, gasping the weapon in her two paws and aiming the tip at her chest. Wait, is she going to stab herself!? I quickly relieve the despairing Dewott of her scalchops, taking them away from her. "But why?" Chell sobs, making me look at her with a serious expression. "Chell, wait. I don't want you to die, kiddo. You tried your best, and killing yourself isn't going to change the fact that you lost." I reply, getting her to look into my eyes.

What you can do, however, is get better and stronger with me. With the rest of us." I add, getting Alita to glare daggers at her. "Yeah, Chell! Get stronger, so you can kick that toad's ass next time!" She objects to Chell's attempted seppuku, while Katrina nods as well. "Do not assume that Jay does not care for you, simply because you lost a fight. We all lose now and then." She assures her, Lily nodding in agreement with her feline friend. "Come on, Chell! Stay with us!" She pleads, Cleo sighing as she hears what Chell tried to do.

"Come on, Chell! Yer better than this, and you know it! Killin' yerself ain't gonna change a thing!" She berates the foolish actions of the Dewott, who looks at her team mates and her Trainer in shock. However, her shock quickly melts away into a smile. "You're right, everyone. What I tried to do was pretty stupid." She laughs, making me chuckle as I wipe her tears away. "Eh, everyone does dumb stuff. For now, let's focus on getting outta here, eh? Those morons aren't gonna stay distracted for long." I remind everyone, gesturing to the pile of muscle brained idiots struggling around each other. "Then get moving, dumbass! Save the mushy stuff for later!" The Sewaddle groans, getting me to nod. "Yeah, yeah. Got it!" I respond, taking off.

Snickering, I decide to make myself scarce as I run towards the door. As the group of numbskulls finally notice that I've up and vanished, they see me making haste towards the door of the Underground Battling Club. "Use your Pokemon! Get the little shit!" One of the thugs yells, making the entire group of people pull out a Pokeball off of their belts and throw them in front of themselves. Many Pokemon of varying types and sizes appear, including quite a few Houndoom, some Bisharp, and even some Water Types like Crawdaunt.

"Houndoom, Fire Blast!" The Trainers commanding the Houndoom yell, making the hellhounds growl before each one launches a powerful stream of fire straight at me. "Crawdaunt, Hydro Pump!" The group of Crawdaunt quickly opens up their claws, releasing multiple powerful streams of water aimed directly at me. "Bisharp, use Focus Blast!" The Bisharps glare angrily at me, before each one quickly charges up a sphere of fighting energy in their hands and chucks it at me.

"Do you seriously think that's going to work?" I chuckle, lifting a hand to stop all of the spheres and streams of water and fire in their tracks. "What the fuck is this!?" The ignorant delinquents yelp, while the Pokemon by my side and in the TBA are equally as surprised. Chell and Cleo are speechless, their mouths wide open as they see me stop the attacks with ease. As for the Sewaddle and Venipede? Let's just say if they had lower jaws, they'd be on the floor right now. This makes me grin as I simply flick my hand towards the Pokemon that had dared throw their attacks at me.

The large streams of water end up doing a full u-turn and smacking the Houndoom dead on, the hellhounds yelping out in pain as they get severely damaged by the highly effective move being thrown at them. Meanwhile, the flames get completely repelled and flung into the Bisharp, melting their steel plates and leaving many serious burns as they scream out in pain. The Crawdaunt aren't on the better end of the deal either, as the spheres of energy slam straight into them and crack their shells in many places as they groan in agony, some even frothing at the mouth.

At the sight of seeing all of their Pokemon defeated so effortlessly, all of the challengers are at a loss for what to do. "Heh, too easy." I smirk, before continuing on my way towards the door and out of the arena. "How the hell did you do that!?" Alita gawks, making me grin as I run off. "Pokemon moves are imbued with magic, so all I had to do was redirect all those attacks right back at them with magic of my own." I chuckle, before I suddenly feel most of my magic leave me in an instant. The sudden loss of power makes me groan as I slow my pace, my body still coming to terms with the sudden drain of my magic. The team seems to be hit by the same wave of weakness, allowing me to quickly catch on to what had happened.

"What's… happening…" The Venipede gasps, as she and the Sewaddle are now struggling to readjust to their powers being nullified. "I think they turned on the UMP nullifier they have. Your moves are now all completely unusable." I tell her, making the Sewaddle groan in annoyance. "Damn, I feel so weak…" The Venipede gestures weakly to the door, not looking much better. "Quick! Get to the door!" She urges, getting me to grunt as I shake my head to try and clear my mind of the drowsiness.

However, I'm so absorbed in running away that I fail to realize that there's a certain man in a black trench coat right in front of my only escape route. "Ack…!" I don't even notice the guy until his fist slams into my gut, making me groan as the sharp pain stops me in my tracks. Once I'm hit, the guy then sends me sprawling to the floor with a roundhouse kick to the stomach. "Aw crap!" The Sewaddle yelps, as she, the Venipede and Chell begin to fall due to the sudden jerk from my shoulders and arms, leaving them with nothing but air to stand on. "Jay!" I hear many voices shout out from my earpiece as I fall, before my back collides with the grimy floor.

"Jay! Hold on, girls!" Cleo shouts, coming to the rescue as she quickly positions herself underneath the three falling Pokemon in an attempt to use her wooly coat to soften their landings for them. Well, at least she tried. She catches the two Bug Types without difficulty, but Chell simply flattens her due to weight and size difference not being on the Mareep's side. "Oof! Chell, yer way too heavy…" Cleo grunts, trying to get the battered and bruised Dewott off of her.

The Venipede and Sewaddle quickly crawl out of Cleo's wool, before the Sewaddle quickly gets an idea of her own. "Come on! Let's get outta here!" She urges, using her leaf to poke the head of her fellow Bug Type, getting the Venipede to look to me and Chell with concern. "But what about them?" She retorts, to which the Sewaddle groans as she points to one of the air vents, located on the wall close to them. "Now's our chance to get going! If you wanna prove yourself so badly, then stay back here for all I care!" She growls, before rushing off to safety. The Venipede gives one look towards her retreating friend, before she makes up her mind.

"I'm so sorry, Jay." She apologizes, before turning around and leaving me and Cleo to fend for ourselves. "Hey! Get back here, you fucking cowards!" Alita yells at them, although I'm the one that can hear her the clearest. As such, I suffer major hearing damage as she yells. "Those damn bugs, turning their backs on us like this…!" Dani growls, while Katrina simply hisses as she witnesses the two Bug Types run off. "Didn't they want to help us? Why are they leaving all of a sudden?" Lily asks, getting me to sigh. "They know a bad situation when they see it, so I guess this is fair. They aren't part of our group, after all." I reply, seeing the focus being shifted.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to simply get back up from that combo the guy had pulled on me. "Ugh, my stomach…" Damn, that shady guy packs a punch. I struggle to stand, and even then I end up falling to one knee. Damn it, normally my magic's there to shield me from physical attacks like those. And that's not even considering that those hits weren't weak, either. I think he broke a rib or two, judging from how my lower chest is in agonizing pain right now. Touching the area only makes the pain worse as I yelp. "Yep, that's two ribs gone…" I gasp, finally able to stand back up.

"Hey! Let 'er go, ya bastard!" I hear Cleo shout, looking up to see the same shady man holding Chell's weakened body in his hands with a handgun placed to her head. "Don't move. If you do, she gets it." He warns me, his face still hidden by the shadow coming from his hat. Chell looks to me with a fearful gaze, scared for her own well being as well as my own. She can't even reach her scalchops and fight back, due to the presence of the UMP nullification field.

Holding up my hands, I slowly stand back onto my two feet. "Fine, ya got me. Just let her go. She hasn't got anything to do with the whole situation." I resign, getting the guy to quickly place Chell back onto the floor, Cleo rushing to her side as the shady man grabs my arms and pulls them behind my back. "Jay! Damn it!" Cleo curses as she tries to charge the man, making me shake my head. "Don't do anything dumb, Cleo. You and Chell can't use your moves, remember?" I remind her, making her reluctantly stand down. The shady man restrains me just in time for the Team Rocket Grunts to show up and surround me.

Two of the Team Rocket grunts quickly apprehend me, slapping a pair of UMP inhibiting handcuffs on me and taking away my bag. With my powers now completely nullified, I'm utterly helpless to stop the grunts from holding me down on the ground. One of the grunts then gestures to my TBA, eyeing it with interest. "Now, show me all of your Pokemon. You have more in that TBA of yours, right?" He demands, getting me to scoff. "What makes you so sure?" I spit, making him growl as he knees me in the back.

"Don't play dumb with me, kid. I've seen you talking to yourself. Or rather, you've been talking to that TBA of yours. Let 'em out. Or else I'll let your back get more acquainted with my knee!" He orders, getting me to roll my eyes. "Nah. I don't need you taking peeks at my team. Besides, you need me alive. And if your boss hasn't made it clear, I'm not made to take hits. One wrong move and I'll die, just like that." I reply, making him glare daggers at me, but he still backs off for now.

"So, this is the kid that's been giving you trouble? This is what you barged into my office and turned on my device for?" I hear another voice, seeing Hunter approach me with another person. This guy's rather fat, and he's dressed quite sharply in a suit and tie. Judging from what he just said, he might be the manager of the Battling Club itself. "Yeah, believe it or not. He's pretty dangerous to anything he doesn't like." Hunter replies, while the manager's eyes drift to my TBA.

"It seems that the boy has some Pokemon of his own. Let's see them, shall we?" He suggests, Hunter complying as he quickly inserts a cable into the receiver slot of my TBA. He immediately overrides the passwords and the locks, forcing the device to materialize the rest of my team out into the real world. Once all of them have fully formed, they are immediately restrained by multiple Throh and collars are placed around their necks.

"I can't use my moves…" Alita groans, while Lily shivers like a leaf in the grasp of the Fighting Type holding her. Nesia says nothing, glaring at the Pokemon restraining her while Cleo tries in vain to wiggle free of the Throh's grasp. Chell is still barely conscious, while Katrina hisses, her fur on end in an attempt to intimidate her captors. However, that doesn't work too well, provided her situation right now. "Get your hands off me!" Dani yells, trying desperately to free herself.

"He does seem to have already collected quite a few." The manager smirks and snaps his fingers, the Throh all suddenly pushing my team's faces into the ground save for Lily and Dani, forcing their rears skyward. Nesia gives a surprised yelp when she gets slammed, while Alita struggles even harder. "Let me go, fucker!" She screams to no avail as the Throh hold her down, making my eyes widen. What the fuck is he trying to pull? Katrina tries to escape the peeping by the guy, but the Throh hold her down to ensure that she isn't going anywhere. The pudgy man then chuckles as he eyes their exposed privates hungrily, most of the now gathered delinquents doing the same.

"They're all female, too. How delicious." He comments, making me suddenly realize just how much of a sick bastard this guy really is. He them raises an eyebrow in interest and walks over to Katrina, reaching down and rubbing her exposed slit gently, making her squirm and moan when she feels his touch. After a few seconds of violation, he then looks at the juices that the feline had leaked onto his fingers, seeing the faint white of cum within. I glare at the pervert angrily, fists clenched.

"And from what this one's leaking out of her cunt, she's already been tainted. By her own Trainer, no less." He snickers, making me growl. If my glare could kill, he would have been vaporized by now. "Let them go, ya sick freak! Right fucking now!" I yell, trying hard to free myself and sock they guy right in the face. However, the grunts hold me down firmly, stopping me from exacting revenge on him. Katrina's face starts to show a light blush, but her glare only intensifies as tears of shame begin to form in her eyes.

"These ones will make such wonderful additions to the girls downstairs, once we train them to be true cum loving whores." The manager smirks as he completely ignores me, making me hang my head low as tears start to form in my eyes. No, this can't be how they go out! Being used as little more than cum dumpsters… No! Please don't let this be the end for them! However, Hunter notices my mental state and steps in to our rescue as he places a hand on the shoulder of the pudgy pervert.

"Sorry, but no. Since these Pokemon have been shown to have an affiliation to our target, they're coming with us." He objects, making the manager growl as the Throh follow suit. "And what makes you think we'll give them over willingly?" He warns the Elite Officer, Hunter quickly making his move in reply. He quickly downs all of the Throh holding my team down, moving at a pace that the average human would find impossible to reach. It's almost like he's using Extreme Speed!

Needless to say, all of the surrounding people, including my team and myself, are stunned by this sudden burst of speed, while the Team Rocket members cheer. "Yeah! That's what ya get for crossing the Speed Demon!" One of them laughs victoriously, making me think. He's never shown that level of speed before, not even back when I knew him. Well, some time has passed since I last laid eyes on him. He's gotten much better at his job, I'll give him that much. Once all of the Throh have been knocked unconscious, Hunter stands right back to where he was standing. Looking the manager of the Club right in the eye, he gestures to the unconscious body guards.

"If you don't want to get beaten to a bloody pulp, I suggest you relinquish possession of those Pokemon." He growls, making the guy frantically nod in reply. "S-sure thing, good Sir! Just take them, take them!" He immediately urges the Elite Officer, who nods as he motions for his grunts with a hand. However, he stops in his tracks to glare at the people around him. "We're putting the kid and his former team in one of the holding cells here. Anyone who dares to violate our newest Pokemon will be dealt with extreme prejudice. Got it?" He says calmly, a wicked smirk etched onto his face which quickly scares off the rest of the observers.

With that out of the way, Hunter quickly motions for the rest of his lackeys to carry me to the nearest holding cell, located on the lower floors of the place. On our way to the elevator, Hunter sends a glance towards me and the grunts still holding onto my arms. "Let him go. I want him to walk alongside me." He tells the two, to which one of the grunts looks to him with a raised eyebrow. "Why? The boss wants it, but I don't get what you'd want with this freak." He replies as he shoves me for emphasis, making Hunter glare daggers at the guy who had the gall to ask him that.

"Insult Jay again and I will personally see to it that you eat through a straw for at least a month. Now unhand him." He growls, making the two yelp in fear and release me, scurrying back to the rest of the grunts behind me for safety. With them gone, Hunter presses a button for the elevator, acting like he's dragging me along for the ride. "Stay here. I'll take the kid to the cell first. And if you dare even touch those Pokemon in the wrong way, I'll castrate you all. No questions asked." Hunter motions to the grunts, who nod fearfully in confirmation as the doors close.

"Now that we're alone, we can catch up for a bit." Hunter sighs, making me nod as I smile at the guy. "Sure thing. God, it's been a while since I saw ya. So, how's the boss been?" I ask him, getting him to smirk. "Same old same old, as usual. He's still hell bent on conquering the entirety of the Pokemon race for himself. You?" He replies, making me shrug. "Eh, you know. I was finally out fulfilling my dream of being the best at this whole Pokemon training thing."

My response makes the guy laugh, and points to me. "Still on about making Pokemon equal, huh? Is that why you banged your Liepard instead of an actual girl?" He grins, while I roll my eyes. "Oh, can it. She came onto me first." I huff, before I raise an eyebrow. "So, when'd ya get that title, huh Speed Demon?" I joke, making him sigh as he looks at his hands. "Not long after ya left, really. The boss told me he'd like some better people to protect the organization, so he sorta mechanized me. I kinda regret the whole thing now, to be honest." He laments, to which I frown.

Seeing my sorrow towards his current condition, he shakes his head. "Eh, not that big of a deal. At least now I can last longer in bed with the missus." He grins, making me laugh. "Geez, man. Always with sticking it to the wife, eh? Speaking of which, how is she?" I ask him, making the guy smile. "It's been slow, but the doc says she's getting better. That new stem cell treatment's really been working to get rid of her muscle dystrophy, so that's good." He smiles sadly, while I sigh.

"Sorry it had to come to this, Jay. I honestly wish it didn't have to." He apologizes, gesturing to my shackled hands. "Don't worry, man. I'll find a way. I did last time, and I'll do it again this time." I reply, getting him to chuckle as he pats me on the head. "Such an optimist. Maybe I could learn a couple things from you." He suggests, making me shake my head. "Nah. Unless you wanna learn how to be the world's greatest couch potato, I don't think I'm exactly your kind of role model." I smirk, making him laugh as we reach the floor where the holding cell is.

"So, any plans about leaving Team Rocket like your previous Boss did?" I ask him as we walk out of the elevator, making him sigh as he shakes his head. "Not yet. This job still pays too well, and God knows I can't get any decent dough out there on my own. Besides, stem cell treatment isn't cheap, you know. Money's gotta come from somewhere, and it might as well be from here." He replies, although his expression tells me that he's more concerned for the morals of his line of work.

"Told your wife about what your job really involves yet?" I ask the Elite Officer, who shakes his head no. "Not a peep about it. I don't think she'll take it well. And knowing her condition, it just might make things worse." He explains, to which I sigh. "You have to tell her eventually." I remind him of reality, to which he nods in agreement. "I know, Jay. It's just that I have no idea how to break it to her. On top of that, I really don't want to." He adds, making me nod in understanding.

Opening the door to the cell I'll be sitting in for now, Hunter lets me walk in before he closes the reinforced steel door and locking it. Giving me one last glance, he walks off to lead my Pokemon inside as well. I take a whiff of my surroundings, and immediately regret it. God, it smells like shit in here. Literally, mind you. Sighing, I plop my ass down and observe my surroundings. There are a couple more Pokemon here besides myself, which take the form of two sets of eyes staring at me from the shadows. Once I enter, the eyes narrow as the Pokemon all tense up. The glare make me sigh, as I hold up my cuffed hands.

"Calm down, guys. I'm just as much a prisoner here as you are." I assure them, to which the two Pokemon step out of the shadows to reveal a Lucario and a Zoroark. The Lucario still eyes me with caution, while the Zoroark lets off grunt as it turns away, presumably to rest up. "Human!" I suddenly hear someone cry out in joy behind me, as I feel the sudden presence of six wings wrapping themselves around me. As I feel small appendages grab my back, I smile. I don't need to guess to know who this is.

"Heya. Hope you've been doing well. What are you doing here?" I chuckle, turning around to pat the Volcarona on the head. She happily welcomes the gesture, as she makes a happy little clicking noise. "Thank you for the concern, human. The manager imprisoned us, because he accused us of not warning him of a valuable prize. But what are you doing here?" She asks, making me sigh. "Well, I'm the prize. I got found out. A certain group of people have been following me, because they need me for something." I tell her, making her happiness shatter in an instant. "Does this mean... we're not getting out?" She whimpers, letting me already see the tears in her eyes.

"Hey, don't cry. I'll make sure you get outta here." I reassure her, making the large Bug Type look me in the eyes with renewed hope. "Do you mean it?" She sniffs, getting me to nod as I gently hold her head in my hands. "Count on it." I reply, hearing someone scoff in reply. "Yeah, right. Didn't you learn anything when you were getting fucked like a whore?" I turn to the source of the female sounding voice, to see none other than the Zoroark spit out those words as she glares daggers at me. Next to the Illusion Pokemon, I see the Lucario that's looking at me cautiously, it's eyes not daring and almost fearful to leave my form.

"Someone's angry today." I shoot back, which serves to piss her off. "Can it! You can't trust him, ya know. Humans aren't good news." The Zoroark growls with finality, making me raise an eyebrow. Someone's got beef with us humans, for sure.


	59. Chapter 59

Chapter 59

[Jay]

"Would you stop that!?" The Zoroark growls, making me shrug as I look her way. "Stop what? I'm not doing much of anything, ya know." I reply, matching her venomous glare with a disinterested look. The Lucario's calmed down for now, relaxed as she eyes me with more interest than fear now. Seeing her scoff as she looks away, I shrug before I decide to poke the horns of the Volcarona again. Feeling my ministrations, she giggles as she stirs next to me. "Stop it, Jay! Please! I'm sensitive there!" She squirms, trying to stop me from poking her.

"Sure thing. Hold on for a second, eh? Let me try a different motion." I reply, switching from pokes to strokes along her horns. She relaxes, sighing blissfully as she feels my touch along her sensitive areas. "Better?" I ask her, making her nod as she lets me keep rubbing her horns affectionately. "Yes, Jay. I like this very much." She replies, nuzzling my hand back as I continue to please her. She makes a happy clicking noise as she feels me work my fingers, making me chuckle in response. However, my mind is a turmoil of panic, stress and worry. Is the team alright? Are they getting raped, or worse? Damn it, so many questions and not enough answers…

"Ugh, seriously!? Quit it already, dumbasses!" The Zoroark suddenly growls and snaps me out of my thinking trance, taking a bunch of newspapers and flinging it my way. It makes a thump when it hits the ground next to me, making me flinch. "Okay, okay. Geez, there's no need to be rude." I sigh, before I notice the stench just coming off of the ball of newspapers. It smells like crap. Seriously, that smells revolting. "The heck did you throw?" I ask her, pinching the bridge of my nose in disgust, while she snickers mischievously.

"Oh, you know. Just something I didn't need anymore." She cackles, making me suddenly realize what she had thrown my way. If she didn't need it, and there isn't much to need in here to begin with, then that means she threw her shit at me! "Oh god, why!? That's fucking disgusting, geez!" I recoil as I laugh, making the vixen laugh out loud as the Volcarona also reels back in disgust. "Oh, man! That was so funny!" She giggles and snorts, while the Lucario also smiles as she lets off a sigh. So far, she's been quiet. However, she does seem to have a soft spot for the Zoroark.

The Volcarona doesn't seem to be too fond of the prank, however. "Do not do that!" She glowers at the Zoroark, before trying to spread her wings to take flight inside the cell. However her efforts are in vain, as she feels the inhibition of the ring around her neck. She quickly slumps to the ground, the power drained from her actions. In reply, the Zoroark scoffs. "It's not like you were going to do much with that around your neck, anyway." She gestures to the collar around her own neck, proving her point. Despite the sudden feeling of weakness that she had felt, the large Fire Moth Pokemon still finds the strength to glare angrily at the Zoroark.

"That was disgusting! You cannot simply throw your poop at someone like that!" The Volcarona argues, making me pat her head to calm her down. "Eh, it's fine. Besides, the situation can't get much shittier than this." I chuckle, making the Volcarona look at me in surprise before she giggles softly. The Zoroark is speechless for a while as she looks at me in shock, as if trying to register what I had said. That surprise quickly fades however, before she too bursts out laughing. Seriously, she's laughing like I had just told the best joke she's heard in her entire life. The laughter continues for a little while, making me grin. Even the Lucario can't help but giggle a little as she hears me make that joke.

"Thank you, thank you. Such a wonderful audience. I'll be here all week." I grin as I stand up and bow courteously, making sure to provide a welcoming gesture to the two appreciators of comedy. Well, as best a bow I could with my hands cuffed in front of me. It seems to get the message across regardless, the Zoroark snorting in mirth as she recovers from her gut busting fit of laughter. "Okay, okay. Now that was funny. You're not that bad, human." She smirks my way, as the Volcarona looks to me as well. "Quite well timed, if I do say so myself." She adds, making me grin.

"That was a good laugh." As the laughter dies down, I hear a new voice next to the Zoroark, making me jump in surprise. However, I quickly catch on to who's talking to me. "So, I finally get to hear your voice." I talk back to the Lucario, who smiles at me in return. "I thought that what Safia had said was true. I thought that you humans really were all bad." She admits, making me raise an eyebrow and turn to look at the Zoroark. "Eh, I don't blame ya if you really do think that way." I shrug, before turning my attention to the Zoroark. "So, your name is Safia?" I ask the Zoroark in question, who nods in affirmation of her name.

"Yeah, that's me. That Lucario over there is Leah. We've been sort of friends for a little while, before we got caught. What's it to ya?" She grunts, while I smile as I repeat their names in my head. Safia and Leah, huh? "Those are nice names. Sure beats the hell outta mine. Name's Jay, by the way." I grin wryly, before extending both my hands and making them look at me in confusion. "What? I can't really use one hand to shake your paw, now can I? My hands are tied, so you'll have to settle for two." I shrug, making Leah nod as she holds out her paw in kind. "A handshake? Eh, no. Not my thing." Safia adds, declining my gesture of friendship. Well, guess trust can't be forged that quickly, huh?

However, Leah doesn't realize the trap I had set before it was too late. As she places her paw in my hands, I clench my hands softly, which allows for enough pressure to set off the whoopee cushion in my hand. Grinning at their surprise when the two bipedal Pokemon hear the soft farting noise, I show them the whoopee cushion in the palm of my hand. "Heh. The old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. Gets 'em every time." I chuckle, getting the two to laugh anew. "Seriously!? How many bad jokes do you have?" The Zoroark- Safia giggles, while Leah smiles wryly at me. Even the Volcarona can't help but smile due to the sudden fart noise, making our situation a little more light-hearted.

As they laugh off the sudden surprise of farting noises, I smile as I rest my head against the wall of the cell. My smile remains, but I can't help but feel a sense of urgency to get the hell out of this cell. Although, wracking my brain for answers doesn't seem to help matters at all. Instead, I simply try to make small talk with the other inhabitants of the cell. "So, are you two the only Zoroark and Lucario here?" I ask Safia, who nods in response to the question.

"The humans did mention that we were the first ones of our kind that they caught, so I guess we are." Leah speaks up, to which I sigh, already knowing what was in store for them. "Well, you two better get ready, 'cause there's a big fight in store for you later." I tell them, getting them, to look at me in confusion. "Wait, what? A fight?" Safia asks, confused as to what I was talking about. "It happens about half an hour after six, which should be very soon. From what I heard, you two are gonna have to fight to the death against a Scolipede. Only the death of one side will end the match." I explain, to which Leah immediately tenses up, fear evident on her face.

"A Scolipede!? Of all the Pokemon to square off with, it had to be a fucking Scolipede!?" Safia shouts, allowing me to see the concern and fear for her own life. "It's a lie, right? You're lying to us, right!?" Safia desperately demands, garbbing me by the collar. "I don't have any reason to lie to you, Safia. I'm trapped here like you, remember?" I sigh, making her release me once she processes that I have a point. Seeing their reactions to the bad news, I don't think either of them have any experience whatsoever when it comes to dealing with something that strong.

"Safia, what do we do? How do we get out now?" Leah quickly turns to her friend, her expression showing her desperation to hear any kind of plan from the Zoroark. Safia doesn't seem to have any answer for her, save for a shaky smile. "Don't worry, Leah. I'll think of something…" She trails off, obviously not wanting to crush the Lucario's hope of escaping. However, I can already tell from the sour look in her eyes that she's fresh out of ideas. "We'll think of something, Safia. I know we will." Leah says as she catches onto her friend's worry as well, softly patting her friend on the back as they try in a futile effort to comfort each other. Seeing them really reminds me of my sister and I when we were lab rats. Seeing something so similar play out in front of me, I can't help but sympathize with the two Pokemon.

However, I don't get much time to take action and help the two out. The door to the cell suddenly flings open, revealing two people that I find surprisingly familiar. "Why hello, Jay." Jimmy grins darkly, while I see the same guy I had just shocked into the ground standing right next to him. "You!" He growls angrily and cracks his knuckles, while I point to myself. "Me!" I add with the same tone of voice that the guy had used to address me, getting a laugh out of Safia.

"So, what brings you here, needle dick?" I grin, while the rich prick fumes angrily at my retort. "God damn it! Must you always insult me!?" He seethes, to which I snicker. "I'm not insulting you. I'm stating facts." I shrug, which makes him huff as he looks around the room. As soon as he lays eyes on the Lucario and Zoroark however, his face twists into a wicked grin. That look means bad news for whoever he's looking at, as I can attest to from personal experience. Safia and Leah seem to be aware of the sudden attention directed their way, tensing up in response.

"Well, my accomplice and I were planning to make you suffer for making fun of me, but now I see an equally enjoyable alternative." Jimmy explains, before he advances on the two helpless Pokemon. "That Lucario over there seems like fun. I wonder how long she'll last." The big brute adds, smirking in a perverse manner at the jackal. Leah's eyes widen in fear, while Safia steps between her and the perverted prick. "You're not touching her, you pieces of shit!" She growls, before Jimmy quickly pulls out a Pokeball and throws it, revealing his Seismitoad again. The large Water Type locks Safia's arms behind her back, while Jimmy walks in front of her.

"I'm gonna have so much fun with you, girlie. Hold still, 'cause this'll feel real good in a minute. And don't worry, ya big moth bitch. You'll get to suck on me soon enough." The muscular man grins, grabbing a hold of Leah's arm. The Volcarona tenses up when she hears the words out of the man's mouth, already afraid of being used like a breeding bitch again. "No! Let me go!" The Lucario panics, struggling to try and escape her fate.

"Leah! Let her go, you sick fuck!" Safia shouts, struggling to break loose of the iron grip of the Seismitoad, but to no avail. Jimmy then reaches for his belt buckle, undoing it to unzip his pants. "You're going to suck me off first, animal. And, you are going to enjoy every single second of this. Not everyone gets to please someone as important as me, after all!" Jimmy cackles, Safia's eyes widening when she catches onto where this is going. Both bipedal Pokemon are trying their best to hold off their assailants, but the collars are stopping them from using their inherent strength. I need to distract them, fast!

"Hey!" I shout, getting the attention of the two rapists. "Ugh, what now? You should be grateful that I'm sparing you from my wrath, peasant!" Jimmy groans, seeing as I'm interrupting him as he's about to put his anatomy to use. "You two were after me, right? Aren't you gonna finish what you started?" I ask them, raising an eyebrow while the big lug lets Leah go. "Now that you say it, you do have a point…" He trails off, already starting to fall for the distraction as he cracks his knuckles. Leah looks to me in confusion, while Safia already knows what I'm doing.

However, Jimmy remains unfazed. "Nah. Why would I do that, when I could fuck a Zoroark for the first time? I'd much rather screw her, thank you." He waves me off, before I sigh. "Heh, I knew it. You're so much dumber than I thought." I chuckle, making the brat look at me in irritation. "The hell is that supposed to mean!?" He growls, making me shrug. "Well, think about it. I'm still Team Rocket's most sought after experiment, so I'm gonna be carted away and used for testing after today. You'll never get another chance to punch me, seeing as you never were able to in the past." I taunt him, making him glare angrily at me while I talk. The big guy seems convinced already, moving in with his fists raised.

"So what'll it be? You gonna do what you could always do later, or take this rare chance to finally get back at me for all those times I beat you in battle like the dick sucking little faggot you are?" I smirk at him, finally making him cast aside all his doubts as he refocuses on his new objective. "Alright, that is it! You are going to regret the day you insulted me, Jay!" Jimmy hisses, rearing up to punch at my chest and making me stumble backwards a few steps. However, I still remain standing. The blow stung, but otherwise I still feel fine.

"Is that it, needle dick? Come on, I thought you would have some power outside of your money." I taunt, desperate to keep their attention locked on me. Growling, Jimmy aims a swift kick to my legs . However, my reflexes allow me to dodge the sweep and land safely away from the clumsy brat. Smirking, I chuckle at the dumb idiot. "That was a terrible move, dude. Are you even trying to hit me?" I laugh, before I feel a heavy blow to the my back. "Gah!" I shout, sent sprawling onto the ground due to the force of the blow. Oh, yeah. There's more than one guy here who wants to smack me into next week.

"How's that, ya little shit?" The culprit behind the dislocation of my back grins, before he and Jimmy move in to kick me while I'm lying on the ground. "No!" The Volcarona yells, sounding concerned for my well being as I continue to suffer blow after crippling blow from the two. They kick every last inch of me, forming painful and numerous bruises of various sizes on my legs, arms and torso. "What's the matter, Jay!? No witty retort now, huh!?" Jimmy cackles in twisted delight, enjoying every last kick he's delivering immensely. As much pain as they deliver, I don't even let out a single yelp, grunt or scream of pain. They don't deserve that kind of satisfaction.

"Whew, that was fun. Now, where were we?" Jimmy cackles, having finally let up on the kicking of my downed body. Hearing this, I force myself to stand through the burning agony that the numerous bruises and cuts on my body are providing plenty of. "That all ya got, morons? Or are you seriously out of steam already?" I chuckle, making the two look at me incredulously. "Screw this! This kid's fucking crazy!" The big guy mutters as he leaves, not comfortable with the, sheer eagerness to get beat up I'm showing off while Jimmy snaps out of his surprise and laughs. "Don't worry, Jay! I'm not done with you yet!" He cackles, before he runs over to hit me again.

His next punch downs me anew, before he kicks me dead on in the ribs with the tip of his shoe. After a few more kicks, I feel the sudden snap of bone in my chest which finally makes me yell out in pain. Hearing my screams, Jimmy chuckles darkly before he continues the kicking of my chest, allowing me to feel some more cracks and snaps as his shoe drives itself into me over and over again. "Stop it! Please!" The Volcarona sobs, seeing me getting beaten into the ground to be unbearable. Safia and Leah can only look on in horror as I get kicked and stomped mercilessly.

Finally, after what seemed to be forever, Jimmy sighs as he finally stomps onto me one last time before he lets up. Turning to the three weak Pokemon, he points to them as he speaks. "You three are rather unlucky, for I have run out of energy. Still, kicking this peasant around was quite the fun time!" He snickers, closing the door behind him. "Oh, and Jay? You'd better not mess with me again. Not that you still can!" He gives off one last taunt before skipping away. As soon as he leaves I prop myself up, coughing up blood onto the cold, grimy floor. "Oh, that smarts…" I wince, clutching my chest as I try to recover from the blows to my pride and my chest. Well, mainly my pride.

"Jay! Are you okay!?" The Volcarona sobs, quickly using her forelimbs to latch onto my chest as she cries pitifully and allowing pain to shoot through my nervous system again. "I'm so sorry, Jay! If only I could have fought back!" She weeps, allowing me to feel her tears seep through my shirt and onto my chest. I pat her back, rubbing her smooth carapace softly as she sobs. "Hey, now. It's okay, honest! Just a couple of shattered ribs, that's all. Don't worry about me." I soothe, trying my best to calm the Fire Moth down. Approaching me quickly, Leah puts a hand to my chest.

"Why?" She utters as she sniffs, her sorrow already showing just how much she regretted my assistance. "It's fine, Leah. I'll heal eventually. It's not that bad." I wave my injuries off, but to no avail as the Lucario looks to me angrily. "Not that bad!? You have three broken ribs, for crying out loud! How can you still be so calm about this!?" She yells, her voice breaking up into sobs and hiccups as she finally loses her rage, sobbing into her own paws. Safia looks away from me, as if she doesn't want to see me like this. In response, I pat the Lucario on the back as she weeps, making her look to me with a teary gaze.

"Come on, Leah. Don't cry." I whisper gently, trying to calm her down. "Why did you help us? You're hurting so badly, just because you decided to draw their attention…" Leah sniffs, while I shake my head. "I may be in bad shape, but you can't get rib of me that easy." I chuckle, making her smile despite her tears. "And to answer your question, I helped you because I could. Besides, no one should have to go through rape." I reply, making her giggle as she hears my answer. "You're too kind, human. Thank you." She thanks me, getting me to smile.

"The name's Jay, by the way. If you're going to be thankful, you could at least remember my name." I grin, making her smile in return. "Sure thing. It's nice meeting you, Jay." She nods happily, wiping her tears away with her forepaw. "You really are quite caring, aren't you Jay?" The Volcarona smiles as well due to seeing me already up on my feet, so to speak. "It's in my nature, ma'am. I'm not bad to the bone like the rest of them." I joke, making Leah giggles as she shakes her head at my carefree nature. The Volcarona's perked up at this point, too. Jokes, you never let me down.

However, Safia interrupts our moment with a sigh. "Uh, Leah? There's still the problem of us having to tussle with a Scolipede, here." She reminds her friend, making the Lucario quickly return to her fear that she had before those two barged in. "So, any idea about what we should do?" She asks her Zoroark friend, who shakes her head. "Still nothing." She replies, cradling her head in her hands as she lets the danger of the upcoming situation sink in. Well, now would be a good enough time as any to lay some advice onto them. Gotta help any way I can, if we want to get out.

"Hey, you two." I speak up, sitting down next to the two Pokemon. Although, my injured legs scream in agony with the move I make and makes me hiss. Seeing me, Leah and Safia stare at me wearily. "Yeah? What is it?" Safia sighs, while Leah seems to be struggling to hold in her anxiety. "How much do you know about Scolipede?" I ask them, to which Leah shakes her head. "Nothing. Fucking nothing, alright!?" Safia growls in anger at me, although I can feel that she's not really pissed because of me. "If that's the case, then you're gonna need some advice about how to beat one." I reply, undeterred by her outburst of rage. Hearing this, Leah looks at me hopefully.

"Really? You'd do that?" She gasps, making me nod in response. "Yeah. So, first thing's first. Scolipede are faster than they look, so stay alert." I begin to break down the tricks, while Leah listens intently. Safia also leans in, her own anger already starting to fizz out. "Watch their feet for any sudden moves, and make sure to move whenever they do. That'll make it think twice about moving to attack you, as it'll get intimidated in kind by your power of observation." I explain, Leah nodding as she takes in what I have to say. "Watch the legs. Got it." Safia adds, before I continue. Even Nova seems to be listening in, her eyes shining intently.

"Next, try not to use any physical moves on it. Even moves like Bone Rush and Shadow Claw shouldn't be used to hit a Scolipede, because of the chance that it might have the ability Poison Point." I move on to the next point, Leah raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Ability?" She asks, to which I nod. "Abilities are natural traits Pokemon have, that can activate in certain battle situations. Take Machamp's No Guard for example. It makes all moves, no matter the accuracy, hit the target for both sides. It's risky, but hella rewarding when you use a move like Dynamic Miss- I mean Punch." I cough, making Leah giggles as she understands what I'm referencing.

"So, like a secret trick to play?" Safia asks, making me nod and address her. "Yup. Your Illusion is one of them, and you're one of the few Pokemon that can even make illusions. You're pretty awesome, if you have an ability like that. The prank possibilities are infinite!" I chuckle, getting her to smirk at me. "Hell yeah, they are! Pulling pranks is so easy!" She gloats, before Leah sighs. "And yet I still caught you red handed when you were trying to trick those humans before." She reminds the Zoroark, who blushes a little in embarrassment. "Hey! It's not my fault you can sense aura! That gave me away right off the bat!" She huffs, while I grin in amusement before continuing my explanation.

"Anyways, being poisoned lowers the power of your ranged attacks, like Aura Sphere and Shadow Ball, so you'll be forced to hit it with Physical Moves again and again if you want to damage it normally after you've been poisoned. Poison also hurts you and makes you weaker over time, so it's like a never ending cycle of pain and crappy attacks. Steel Types are immune to Poison, so Leah should be fine." I warn them, making Safia nod. "Never touch the bug's skin. Got it." She speaks up, while Leah nods and commits what I had said to memory.

"Now, the main weaknesses of a Scolipede are the horns on its head and it's softer underside. A well aimed blow to the underside is enough to hurt even the largest and scariest of Scolipede, so make sure you can flip it onto it's side. Aim attacks for the legs, which has a high chance of getting it to fall over. Fighting Type Moves aren't the most effective against it, so try using Rock Types moves to attack it. But, Power-Up Punch is a good second choice." I add, before I wince. My bruised chest starts to flare up in pain, making Leah look to me in concern.

"Are you okay?" She gasps, hearing me groan. "I'm fine. Leah, you need to shield Safia from Poison Type attacks, and get in close to keep the Scolipede distracted. Safia, you need to attack it from range. Shadow Ball is your friend here, so use it as much as you can." I remind them, getting Leah to nod. "Right. Don't worry, Safia. I'll be sure to protect you!" The Lucario looks to her friend, while the Zoroark gives a thankful grin. "And I'll be sure to pelt that big lug from a distance." She replies, the two looking much more confident in their own abilities now.

Turning to me, Leah regards me with a thankful gaze. "We've just met you, yet you've already done so much for us. I can't tell you how grateful I am for you help, Jay." She nods to me, tears welling up in her eyes again. However, I quickly reach out to wipe away the happy tears from her features. "Hey, now. Crying isn't any way to say you're thankful. Seeing you happy is thanks enough, Leah." I reply, allowing me to see the happy smile on her face as she hears me say that.

"Safia! We've finally got a chance to win! Isn't this great?" Leah squeals with joy, hugging her friend tightly with her own arms. "Sure thing, Leah." The Zoroark replies as she returns the hug, smiling all the while. "They really care about each other, don't they?" The Volcarona comments, getting me to nod. "Yeah. Don't you have anyone like that?" I ask her, immediately deflating her mood as she sighs. "I am afraid not. The only people I have ever seen are the people that have kept me here and the others like me." She answers, to which I wince. Oops. I really should have thought that question through, huh?

"Oh. Sorry about bringing that up." I chuckle sheepishly, making her shake her head. "It is fine." She assures me, although the tone of her voice tells me that she is anything but. "Hey, you know what? Why don't you join me?" I suggest, the Volcarona looking at me in surprise. "Join you?" She repeats, getting me to nod. "Yeah. I'm a Pokemon Trainer, so having Pokemon around is kinda important to me. I'm sure my team wouldn't mind the extra company, and you'd get to travel around and fight other Pokemon along with us." I suggest, seeing her quickly lighten up.

"Are you sure? I do not know much about fighting, so I might not be of any help." The Volcarona asks, getting me to pat her on the head. "You could always learn how. Everyone has to at some point. So, whaddya say?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow her way. Her response is immediate, and quite physical as she quickly latches onto me, happily nuzzling me. "I would love to! Thank you, Jay!" She cries joyfully, her soft and fuzzy wool tickling the skin of my neck and making me laugh.

"Someone's excited, I see. Affectionate, too." I comment, getting her to giggle as she continues to nuzzle me relentlessly. "So, I was thinking about giving you a name. You know, to prove that you're not just any old Volcarona." I suggest, to which she gasps in delight. "Okay!" She quickly agrees to my idea, before looking to me hopefully and awaiting her new name. It doesn't take me long to give her one, as a certain one quickly surfaces in the forefront of my mind. "How about Nova? It's similar to a burst of fiery energy, like what the sun gives off. I think it's fitting, seeing how you're a Fire Type." I tell her, to which she nods to affirm my choice.

"Nova sounds nice. I like it." She replies, getting me to grin at the new addition to the group. "Then let's reintroduce ourselves, shall we? I'm Jay. Nice to be travelling with you, Nova." I add, getting her to nod as she stares into my eyes. "I am Nova. It is very nice to meet you, Jay." She replies, before I hear a cough from Safia. Turning to face her, I can see that she's wearing an expression of guilt as she eyes me. "Hey, Jay? Do you have a sec?" She asks, getting me to nod. "Sure thing. What's up?" I ask the Zoroark, who approaches me and places a paw on my shoulder.

"I just wanted to say…" She stops herself there and relents for a little, before deciding to finish her sentence. "I'm sorry for doubting you earlier. I should've known you weren't trying to trick us or anything." She speaks up, continuing before I could tell her anything. "I should have figured that out from how you took those beatings for us back there, and how you even helped up by teaching us how to beat a Scolipede. Sorry, Jay." She apologizes, and I could tell that this one was genuine, unlike the supposed mischievous nature that Zoroark are known for.

"Eh, don't sweat it. You got caught by humans, right? If I were you, I wouldn't have trusted me, either. I admit that I do look quite suspicious." I shrug, making Safia laugh as she hears me make light of the situation. "Well, I can't say you're wrong there!" She snorts, patting me on the shoulder as she grins my way. Leah smiles at her friend, having finally seen her approach and make nice with me. However, everyone in the cell is suddenly alerted to the sound of the cell door opening.

Turning to take a peek at who had opened the door, I see the familiar figure of the trench coat guy that had punched me in the gut. "Oh, it's you. What's a guy like yourself doing here?" I raise an eyebrow, getting Safia to raise an eyebrow. "You know this guy?" She asks, making me shake my head. "No. I only know how strong he can punch. And damn, I can tell you he packs one hell of a right hook. He's the reason why I got locked up in the first place." I reply, before I get yanked by the collar and held in midair.

"Okay, and now I'm in the air." I choke, Nova immediately trying to come to my aid. However, she can do little outside of flapping her wings to try and deter the guy. Shoving her away, he throws me to the ground. "Tell me all about your ties with Team Rocket. Now." The guy growls, to which I raise an eyebrow. "Hey, buddy. Unless you can get us all outta here or call the cops, I'm not telling. Besides, I don't wanna be involved in any of their plans. If I did, I wouldn't be here right now." I ask, getting the guy to glare at me intently for any signs of deceit. However, he fails to notice any, so he sighs as he sits down.

"Alright, then. Maybe once you know who I really am, it'll convince you to talk." He speaks up, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "Who you really are? What's that supposed to mean?" Safia asks, right on cue for his face to melt. His body shrinks a bit, the excess mass gathering onto his face. Once there, the mass splatters onto the floor in one big, pink lump. "What the fuck!?"


	60. Chapter 60

Chapter 60

[Jay]

"Holy fucking shit! His face is melting!" Safia screams in horror, the scene making her eyes bug out of her sockets in disgust. "What is happening to him!?" The Volcarona yelps, no less horrified than the rest of us as we watch the guy's face quite literally melt away. Leah is stunned into silence, shaking like a leaf as she eyes the terrifying congregation of pink around to the guy's feet. However, the pink puddle soon forms a face in it's fleshy pool as the flow of slime ceases. Wait a sec. A face?

The puddle of goop on the floor forms a blob with a smiling face on it, as the newly changed guy lifts off his hat to reveal his own features. He looks to be pretty young, with a head of black hair and a grim expression lining his slightly pudgy face. However, the thing that catches my eye the most is the badge that's on his shirt. I couldn't have seen it before he unbuttoned his trench coat, and I can see the signature P insignia of the Pokemon Rangers Organization on it. However, the badge is in a shade of black and gray.

His eyes are trained on me, making sure to watch out for any sudden moves on my part. He looks to the newly formed Ditto by his feet, before addressing me as he reaches into his pocket and holds out his identification. "I'm Aiden of the Pokemon Rangers Organization, Black Ops Branch. This is Jelly, my Ditto." He speaks up, before he puts away his wallet. His Ditto Jelly quickly slides up his legs and onto his shoulder, where it stays put. "Now that you got the proof that I'm here to help, care to talk now?" He sighs, getting me to raise an eyebrow.

"Wait, who are you?" Safia growls as she takes up a defensive stance, getting the Ditto to speak up. "Don't worry, miss. We're here to help all Pokemon from evil people, like those guys that run this place." The pink blob explains, getting me to stare at him in awe. "I have never seen a Ditto before, sir. Mind if I take a closer look?" I plead with the guy as I completely ignore his questions, only for him to quickly catch my curious hand in midair. "No, and that's final." He grunts, to which I frown. "Come on, dude! These things are rare enough in Unova already! Besides, their shape shifting tricks are so cool!" I retort, getting Leah's attention.

"Shape shifting? Like what Safia does?" She asks, getting me to shake my head. "No. Ditto can take the physical form and attacks of the Pokemon they copy, so it's like a fight against yourself when you face one down." I explain, before I feel a small appendage tap me on the shoulder. Looking behind me, I see the Volcarona staring cautiously at the Ranger. "How do you know this isn't a trick?" She questions, to which Safia nods in agreement to the Fire Moth's question. "I'm gonna have to agree with her. How do we know if you're not lying to us?" She accuses, glaring daggers at the two new arrivals to the cell.

"Simple." I reply, gesturing to the badge on Aiden's shirt. "No one can get a badge like that on their own." "What do you mean by that?" Leah asks, getting me to look her way before continuing. "You need to prove yourself by taking one of the hardest tests imaginable among us humans, which consists of both an intelligence test and a strength test. If he has a badge like that, then he's one of the best and dedicated humans to the cause of protecting Pokemon. He can be trusted." I nod to the guy, who looks to me in thanks for the explanation.

"Thanks for the clear up. Now, could you please answer my question?" He repeats calmly, although I can feel some of his irritation slipping through his voice. "Fine, but could you do something for me in return?" I ask him, getting him to look at me with a raised eyebrow. "And what would that be?" He asks, watching me gesture to the confines of the cell. "Help us get outta here. Frankly, I don't want to be here for long." I point out, to which Aiden nods. "That can be arranged. I'll be able to get you out by the time the big death match rolls around. Case in point, very soon." He assures me.

"Cool. So, I'm basically Team Rocket's long forgotten pet project. I was artificially birthed with some DNA they had in reserve." I explain, to which everyone looks at me strangely. "Wait, so does that mean you do not have a mother?" Nova asks, getting me to shake my head. "Well, yes and no. Dad provided his own gametes, and the DNA they had was fused with his. The result: me. A hybrid of human and Pokemon. So, I technically don't know who my mom is." I reply, to which Aiden nods in realization. Safia and Leah seemed to be more interested in me now as well.

"That would explain how you did that. You used Psychic on that Seismitoad." Jelly realizes, eyeing me with curiosity like I had looked at him a while ago. "Someone's smart. Yup, I used Psychic on that toad. Being half Pokemon does come with it's advantages." I chuckle, Leah poking me in the side experimentally. "So, can you use other moves?" She asks, to which I shake my head. "Nope. Unfortunately, I'm only able to use Psychic Type moves." I sigh in response, shaking my head.

"So, you can use Pokemon moves. Why does that make you so important to this Team Rocket again?" Safia questions, to which I gesture to myself. "Hello? Guy with Pokemon powers here? I have the brains, and the brawn. And that's not adding in the fact that I got a major power boost in the form of my eyes. They help increase the strength of my attacking moves, letting me hit that much harder in a fight." I add, pointing to my eyes for emphasis.

"So, what does Team Rocket want with a guy like you?" Aiden asks, getting me to sigh. "Well, with the added power and the smarts to fight effectively, I was part of their plan to kill off all of the legendaries and rule over all of the world's Pokemon with an iron fist. And after that, getting humanity to surrender their control over Earth will be a breeze." I explain, getting Safia, Jelly, Leah and Nova to gawk at me while Aiden keeps his own composure. However, his wide eyes betray his mask.

"Wait, what!? You can kill legendaries!? THE Legendaries!?" Safia cries in disbelief, looking at me with a newfound sense of awe. "Well, that's still a theory in progress. However, I do pack quite a punch in fights. I've beaten many of the stronger testing Pokemon they've thrown me up against, like both a Steelix and Hydreigon at once." I reply, only serving to help the Zoroark's jaw become more acquainted with the floor. "You can take on Pokemon like those and win!? That's insane!" Jelly gulps, staring at me in slight fear. Leah is simply speechless by the sudden reveal of my true abilities, while Nova is equally as surprised when I dropped the bomb on their heads.

"I was expecting you to have secrets, but I did not expect them to be so… shocking." Nova speaks up, getting me to shrug as I grin. "I know. I don't exactly look the part of a powerful god slayer, huh?" I chuckle, as Safia nods in agreement. "You got that right! You don't even have half the muscle a god slayer should have!" She criticizes me, getting me to sigh in light of my pride taking another devastating blow. "Gee. Thanks for the compliment, Safia. I appreciate you busting my balls like that…" I groan, Safia smirking mischievously. "Anytime, Jay." She snickers.

"That is a rather ambitious plan, which sounds exactly like something Giovanni would do. And with you as living proof, we should have all we need to finally bring down Team Rocket." Aiden smiles, which makes me worry when I see his expression of hope. I really want to bring an end to Team Rocket, believe me. But, I know that Giovanni's a resourceful man. He won't just let all of this slide. He's going to find some way to bounce back from all of this, and when he does, he's going to try and harm me and my sister to the fullest. I can't bear thinking of any harm coming to Yupia, so I'm really apprehensive about this.

"Wait a sec, Aiden. About that whole bringing down Team Rocket thing, that's something we can discuss later in private. But for now, I'd like to talk about our escape plan. With these on, I can't use any of my powers at all." I remind him of his end of the deal, to which he nods. "Alright. So, I'm planning to use the distraction of the big fight that's going on later in order to destroy the UMP device located in the main office that the manager sits in. Once I'm done, I need someone to shut off the main light that's in the center of the arena. Once that goes off, the rest of the lights will follow. My reinforcements could use the resulting confusion to barge in."

"And everyone gets arrested. Nice plan." I comment, getting Jelly to smirk. "Thanks. It wasn't easy to think up, ya know." He boasts, to which Aiden rolls his eyes. "You're talking like you're the one who came up with the plan, and not the one who slept through the briefing." He reminds his Pokemon, who huffs in reply. "Hey! I was the one who invented the disguise idea!" He retorts, while Aiden sighs. "And you were the one who almost blew every single covert ops mission we've done so far." He shoots back, making me shake my head as the two argue it out.

"Guys, save being gay for later. Just get on with the plan, alright?" I suggest, getting Safia to snicker when she hears my input. "Sure, but there's still one problem. I need someone to get the lights when I turn off the inhibitor." Aiden speaks up, to which I nod. "Well, that won't be a problem. Remember the Zoroark and Lucario that are going to fight the Scolipede later? You're looking at them." I tell him, gesturing to the two lupines beside us. Turing to look at them, Aiden's expression shifts to a grim frown as he addresses them.

"I know this request is going to be absurd, but I'll need you two to win your fight against the Scolipede and shut off the lights. They're located on the ceiling of the cage, so turning it off shouldn't be much trouble." He instructs them, getting Safia to smirk. "That won't be too much of a problem. After all, Leah isn't affected by Poison Type moves! Isn't that right, Leah?" She laughs, patting her timid friend on the back. "Safia's right. I'll be able to hold the Scolipede back until you can destroy the inhibitor." She nods, albeit a little doubtfully.

"Hold it back!? You'll crush that bug under your paw!" Safia asserts her friend's strength, making Leah blush in embarrassment as she hears the Zoroark's praise of her own fighting prowess. However, she didn't account for a certain Volcarona in the cell beside me. "Safia? Don't look now, but someone isn't exactly appreciative of what you just said." I remind her, as Safia finally realizes that there's another bug in the room with us and turns to see Nova glaring at her. "Eh, no offense." Safia adds, chuckling nervously as she waves her paw. "None taken, Safia." Nova replies, her expression softening as she receives the apology.

"Thanks Safia, but I'm not that strong." Leah smiles sheepishly, making Safia shake her head vigorously. "Don't say that, Leah! You're plenty strong! You wouldn't have been able to beat me one on one otherwise!" She retorts, getting me to sweat drop. "She does have a type advantage over you, ya know. Why would you fight a Lucario, anyways? That's not a smart choice…" I trail off, getting Hal to agree. "He's right, ya know. You're a Dark Type, so going up against a Fighting Type isn't the best of ideas." He adds, making the Zoroark huff in embarrassment as she coughs.

"Shut up! That's not the point here!" She crosses her arms as she blushes a shade of pink under her dark fur, making me chuckle. "But Safia's right, Leah. Be more confident in yourself, okay? Safia believes in you, and I believe in you. Now, you've gotta believe in yourself, and your own strength." I reassure her, placing both hands on her shoulders as I look her in the eyes. "Oh, uh, thanks Jay. I really don't think I'm that good at fighting, though…" The Lucario trails off, a faint blush on her cheeks as she averts her gaze from mine. However, her smile tells me that she's pretty happy.

"That's great and all, but you lovebirds realize that we've got a plan to enact, right? Save the lovey-dovey talk for when we get outta here." Jelly coughs, making me look his way and roll my eyes and sigh as Leah blushes even redder in embarrassment. The Lucario promptly pulls away from me, not wanting to embarrass herself further. "For the record, that's not what's happening here. Encouragement is important for anyone to succeed, you know." I inform the Ditto, getting him to smirk. "Sure thing, Casanova." He chuckles, before he diverts his attention to the girls of the cell.

"Hello, ladies. If you're up for it, do you feel like going out on a date with me? Or better yet, feel like joining the Rangers? You and I could do some real good out there, and then we could do some good in bed…" He smiles seductively, making Safia and Leah quickly take their chance to back out. "Uh, sorry. I'm busy once I get outta here. I've got places to go, Pokemon to see. Besides, I'm not looking for a relationship with you. I'm just not that interested." The Zoroark excuses herself, promptly scurrying away from the conversation. Ouch. I can just feel that punch to the gut that Jelly must be feeling right now.

"I'll be busy too. I need to improve my battling skills as a Lucario." Leah quickly adds, following Safia away from the Ditto. Nova simply shakes her head, declining his offer. "Sorry about Jelly. He's kind of annoying and a shameless flirt with the girls, as I can attest to with personal experience." Aiden apologizes, making me smile wryly. "Ya don't say…" I reply, eyeing the little blob of pink goo with a deadpan stare. "What? It's all in good fun." Jelly replies, waving off the Ranger's comment and my stare with a grin. "He is kind of annoying, now that you mention it." Nova whispers to me, getting me to chuckle as the Volcarona voices her discontent towards the Ditto's attitude.

"Heh, tell me about it. First he pokes fun, then he starts flirting? That's so many bad signals going off all at once, it's making my head hurt." I sigh, shaking my head as Aiden coughs into his hand, grabbing our attention. "Okay, and that's enough of that." He speaks up, placing a hand over the sexually excited blob of pink goo and messing up his face and mouth. Jelly is briefly unable to talk, having had his face smothered back into his body, but a few seconds later he finally manages to manifest a new face for himself, and he immediately uses his eyes to glare at the Black Ops Ranger.

"Oh come on, Aids! That is so not cool! I thought you agreed to let me try and get lucky with the girls first, damn it!" Hal argues, while Aiden quickly shuts him up by messing up his face again. "And you agreed to put your job as a member of the Black Ops Rangers first and foremost, Jel. Now stop being such an autistic little piece of shit and help me suit up. I can't disguise without you, and we need to leave now." He reminds the Ditto of the plan, to which Hal reluctantly sighs in defeat.

"Ugh, fine. But once this is all over, you owe me a date with Lisa later!" Jelly grumbles, quickly spreading his gooey form over Aiden's own body. In a few seconds, their disguise is back up and ready to rumble. "That's one hell of neat trick. And seriously? When is Aids a nickname?" I comment, getting Aiden to smirk at me. "Long story. You're not wrong. Being able to shift into a random person at will does help to keep the enemy off your back. On top of that, Jel's ability to shape shift isn't affected by UMP inhibitors either." He explains, to which Leah nods in wonder.

"He is quite useful, for someone of his personality." She adds, to which Safia nods in agreement to the Lucario's statement. "You could say that again." She adds, to which Jelly forms a face on the side of Aiden's arm and frown at the Lucario in response. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" The Ditto huffs, making Aiden sigh as he smears Hal's face in response. "She means that you're a shameless flirt and an intolerable ass, you moron. And you're not even that good at talking with girls. Now come on, we need to get moving. The fight's starting in five minutes." He warns the Transform Pokemon, before he quickly excuses himself and leaves the cell.

Once he's gone, Leah looks to me with a slight blush on her face. "Was what you said to me just now really true?" She asks, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "The fact that I said your name was nice, or that fact that I said I believed in your fighting skills?" I ask her, getting her to blush deeper in embarrassment. "Um, I meant the part about you having faith in me." She says, to which I gently pat her on the shoulder with my hands. "Of course. Why wouldn't I mean that?" I ask her jokingly, a wry smile on my face as I reassure her of the truth behind my words.

"Um, thank you Jay. No one besides Safia's ever told me they believed in me before…" She replies, a small smile spreading on her own face as well. "Well, now you've got someone else who has. Now promise me you and Safia will kick some Scolipede tail into next week, yeah?" I grin her way, getting her to nod as she grasps my hand. "I promise, Jay." She seals the deal with her paw in my hand, smiling warmly at me. "That makes two of us!" Safia adds, grinning as she places her own black furred paw on top of Leah's.

As soon as we agree on the plan, the door suddenly swings open to reveal a man dressed in a guard's uniform and three Throh standing beside him. "Get 'em, boys." The guy smirks, the Throh quickly walking into the cell to grab a hold of the Lucario and the Zoroark, using their muscular arms to secure their arms behind their backs. "Good luck, you two." I eye them as I nod their way, to which the guy ordering the Throh around smirks. "Why wish them good luck? You're joining them, after all." He adds, the third Throh grabbing me by the waist and throwing me onto his back.

"No!" Nova cries desperately, unable to stop the Fighting Types from making off with me. One of the Throh grunts in annoyance, before straight up punching the Volcarona in the body and causing her to smash into the wall opposite the door. "Hey! Why'd you do that!?" I yell angrily at the brutish Pokemon, who simply grunts as he ignores me. As we exit the cell, I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that I had been chosen to fight the Scolipede as well.

"Wait, what? Why me?" I ask the guy, who looks behind his shoulder at me as he hears my question. "Some prick called Jimmy specifically requested that you be put in the arena with them. Wasn't my call, kid. Besides, I get paid, and I get to see one more thing die in the death cage. It's a win win!" He cackles, to which I roll my eyes. Of course it was Jimmy. Who else could it have been? "And that is not how you use that term." I inform him, getting the man to sigh as he boards the elevator to reach the floor the Battle Dome is on. "I give zero fucks about grammar, kid. Now shut up and try to die in an interesting way, alright?" He glares daggers at me, making me shrug in reply.

Once we reach the floor of the Battle Dome, Safia, Leah and I are quickly shoved into the central cage, the door slamming shut behind us. As soon as we enter, I hear someone announcing from the speakers lined around the arena. "Good evening, folks! Who's ready for some Death Battle!?" The guy roars into the microphone, making the gathered crowd cheer as they hear the fight about to get underway. "On one end of the arena today, we have two new faces from Pinwheel Forest as well as a guest of honor! A Lucario, a Zoroark and a human!" The crowd boos and jeers at us, making me wince as I feel virtually no support from the people watching.

"Wow, we only just got here and we're already on the shit list." Safia growls as she glares daggers at the people around her, Leah looking quite worried. "Don't worry. We'll get some vengeance soon enough. We just have to wait for Aiden, and then we're home free." I assure them, just in time for the announcer to speak up again. "And from the other end of the arena, a favorite of the crowd's for a week now, and undefeated blood spiller of the Death Battle! Put your hands together for Gore Lord!" The announcer yells, the crowd whistling and cheering loudly as the other door opens just in time for a large Scolipede to charge straight at us.

"Move!" I gulp, the three of us quickly diving out of the way for the Scolipede to smash into the other end of the cage, denting it. "And Gore Lord gets a head start!" The announcer laughs, the crowd laughing along with him as if they were watching comedy. Fucking scum, all of them. It quickly recovers though, turning around to glare venomously at the three of us. This does not look good for the three of us. Not a single bit.

"Holy shit, that thing's scary…" Safia gulps, staring right at the big bug. It's horns and mouth parts are stained with dried blood, while it's bloodshot eyes seem to scare Leah half to death. As soon as it entered, the cage door closes, and the collars holding Safia and Leah back pop off. The collar on the Scolipede pops off too, letting it loose as it roars angrily at us, the burning will to murder us etched deep into it's eyes. I gulp in response as I stare the beast down, waiting for its next move.

"Will these three pieces of fresh meat get crushed into paste, or will they win this fight? Let's find out! Go!" The announcer cackles, just in time for the blood covered Scolipede to roar and charge us again. "Shit. Keep running! Do not let it hit you!" I scream, Safia and Leah quickly splitting up to avoid the charge. Meanwhile, I dodge to the right since I am unable to fight back, due to the fact that my handcuffs are still around my wrists. Damn it, the odds are stacked against us here…!

"Leah! Hit it with Aura Sphere!" I yell, the Lucario quickly charging up a light blue ball of energy in her paws and launching it at the massive Megapede Pokemon. The sphere smashes into the Scolipede's neck area, quickly making it howl in pain and staggering it backwards a few feet. "Nice one!" I cheer, Safia throwing her friend a smile as the Lucario blushes. "Oh! And the Lucario lands a nice Aura Sphere! That must've hurt! But don't look now, folks! Gore Lord seems to be back on his feet and ready to rumble!" The announcer yells, getting me to look at the big bug. It shakes it's head quickly, already recovering from the move.

"Safia! Use Shadow Ball! Aim for the legs!" I call out to the Zoroark, who quickly catches on to what I have planned. "Got it!" She replies, forming and lobbing a ball of ghostly energy straight at the Scolipede's legs. However, Gore Lord proves to be a little too fast for the Zoroark, as he quickly runs past the attack without much difficulty. He then tries to counter attack, curling up into a ball and rolling right towards Safia. "And Gore Lord is rolling out with his own Steamroller attack!" The announcer guy yells, the crowd already cheering Gore Lord's name.

"Really? This is just too easy." I mutter as I shake my head, jumping out of the way of the Scolipede's straight rolling attack along with Safia and Leah. For the most part, the only thing that the big lug hits is the steel bars of the cage we were standing behind moments ago. "And now, to deal with… Holy shit!" I yelp in the middle of my sentence, as the three of us are forced to leap out of the way of the same rolling ball of death. "What the fuck!? We heard him smash into the bars! Why hasn't he stopped rolling!?" Safia yells, before the announcer clears things up for us.

"Gore Lord has shifted into his signature pinball maneuver! Those cage walls are pretty flexible, which allows him to bounce around without having to slow down! It would seem that these three are about to get smashed!" The announcer cheers, along with the majority of the crowd along with them. Gore Lord just hasn't stopped his attack thus far, smashing into each wall repeatedly as he tries to bowl us into the ground. "What's the plan!?" Safia screams at me, just barely avoiding getting sliced up by those rapidly spinning horns on the beast's body. Leah looks to me also, having no idea how to deal with this move.

"Keep dodging! I'm working on it!" I yell back, trying my best to stay alive and possibly recover from this endless onslaught of imminent rolling death. Damn it, with the way the Scolipede's bouncing around, we'll end up becoming road kill! It's moving around faster and faster, and there's no way we'll be able to stop it with a direct attack. There isn't much time, and I need to think up of something. Anything! I frantically look around, as I try to find any kind of factor that we could use to our advantage here. However, I fail to spot anything besides the wheel of death barreling towards us over and over again. Wait a sec. Wheel… Got it!

"Safia! Leah! Aim your attacks for the bottom right side of the Scolipede! Throw it off balance!" I yell, Safia looking to me incredulously. "Are you serious!? There's no way that'll work!" She shouts back to me, before having to cut our conversation short as she ducks out of the way of the wheel of death. "We're running out of time! If you have a better idea, I'm all ears!" I reply, to which she sighs. "Alright, alright!" She replies, before working with Leah to simultaneously time their attacks so that they hit the bottom of the Scolipede wheel at the same time.

The combined blasts of the ranged moves quickly sends Gore Lord's pinball maneuver out of whack, the Scolipede now forced out of his wheel form due to the sudden lack of balance he was experiencing. "What a move! Gore Lord's lost his momentum, and it would seem that the three challengers have gained an edge from that lucky shot!" The announcer yells, the crowd booing at us as we manage to move out of the way of the wobbling bug wheel. The Scolipede crashes into the cage wall once more with a loud clang, unable to change his course.

"We did it!" Leah cheers, Safia visibly relaxing once she sees the bug downed and unmoving. "Nice shot, you two. But it might not be over just yet." I warn them, looking back at the large bug just in time to see it stand up again. "Gore Lord isn't going down easy, though! He's back at it again!" The announcer cheers, the crowd following suit as they see the large bug stand back up on its feet and roar at us angrily. Judging from the glare it's sending out way, it didn't appreciate the fact that we had knocked it over.

"Well, crap. Now what do we do?" Safia growls, now eyeing the beast down with a ferocious glare of her own. "Remember what we talked about? It's time to put that plan into action." I smirk, Safia quickly catching onto what I want to do. "Oh, yeah! Let's do this!" She grins, getting into an offensive low crouching stance. "Right!" Leah replies, also preparing herself for the fight about to take place. "And the three newcomers are now staring Gore Lord down! What will they do next!?" The announcer yells, the crowd once again beginning to chant the name of the Scolipede.

"Leah, get in close! Use Power-Up Punch to hit it! Safia, bombard it from range!" I yell, the two lupines getting to work. Leah rushes head long at the Scolipede, already winding back for a swift punch to the underside. Gore Lord tries to quickly stop her from being able to do so, but a swift Shadow Ball to the head makes his reel back and howl in agony. "Ha! Gotcha good that time, ya big creepy crawly!" Safia taunts, only serving to further enrage the Scolipede. It's so enraged in fact, that it doesn't even notice the Lucario that's waiting to punch it in the gut until it's too late.

Leah's punch isn't that strong now, but it does serve to further cause pain for the opposition, which looks down to glare at the Lucario. "Keep at it, Leah! Use Power-Up Punch again! Safia, help her out!" I shout, Safia nodding in response to my command. "On it!" She replies, lobbing another Shadow Ball that the Scolipede is too distracted to dodge. Meanwhile, Leah simply keeps aiming her Power-Up Punches for the legs and the under belly of the large Bug Type, upping the power of her physical attack with every time she uses the move.

The Scolipede switches focus and actually gets out of the way of the third Shadow Ball, but Leah's swift punch to the side makes it regret not keeping tabs on the both of them at the same time. Leah's attack should be high enough for my plan to work now. "Leah! Use the cage to get higher and smack it's head with Bone Rush!" I call out to the Lucario, who quickly starts to climb the bars of the cage at a rather impressive speed. She's agile, that's for sure. "Safia! Keep it distracted by running around it! We need to buy Leah time!" I yell, Safia quickly following suit and taking off in the opposite direction I'm going. Surely enough, the big guy is confused and is forced to stay still to try and get a bead on us.

"And the Lucario is off! Is she trying to escape her fate by running away?" The announcer snickers, the crowd booing at her as she climbs higher. Once Leah is high enough, she quickly forms a bone and holds it in both paws. She wastes no time in leaping off of the bars and slamming the thick stick of fortified calcium down onto the noggin of the Scolipede, who gives off one last yelp of pain before slumping onto the ground, unconscious. "Help me!" I suddenly hear Leah yelp, making me look up at her. Due to the height of which the Scolipede's head is located, Leah ends up at the mercy of gravity as she falls down towards the ground.

"Hold on, Leah! I'm on it!" I yell, quickly running over to catch her in my arms. Well, I try to. At least I soften her fall by crumpling under her weight. "Ow…" I moan, feeling Leah crush my chest and further hurting my ribs. "Oh, no! Are you okay!?" Leah yelps in panic, getting me to nod. "I'm fine." I reply, as the crowd is stunned into silence as they see the defeat of the Scolipede and the cage doors open, signifying the defeat of a Pokemon. "Now, Leah! Get the lights!" I tell her, Leah nodding and firing an Aura Sphere at the light fixture. Silence quickly gives way to confusion as Leah shoots an Aura Sphere at the light above us, plunging the arena into darkness.


	61. Chapter 61

Chapter 61

[Jay]

"What the hell is going on!?" I hear someone from the crowd shout, as the sudden loss of visibility leaves everyone rather confused. "Someone close the cage doors before the Pokemon get loose!" Someone else shouts near our position, getting me to take action fast as I make haste for the cage entrances. "Now! We need to leave!" I yell for Safia and Leah, the two nodding as they sprint out of the opened cage.

"Damn it! Put them back into the cage! We can't afford to lose 'em!" Someone else, most likely one of the guards, growls. He is then promptly silenced by a punch to the back of the head that knocks him out, courtesy of Leah. Safia makes quick work of the other two, bashing their heads together and letting them fall. I use my handcuffs to bash the guards outside the other exit of the cage, making them fall unconscious. However, the Lucario quickly yelps as she looks at the results of her handiwork, beginning to panic.

"Oh, no! I didn't hit him too hard, did I?" She gasps, getting Safia to sigh as she pats her friend on the shoulder. "He'll be fine, Leah. He wouldn't have had mercy on you, so why have mercy on him?" She asks her rhetorically, which flies directly over the Aura Pokemon's head. "But he's a living being, too! I can't imagine killing anyone under any kind of circumstance, Safia! I just can't!" She retorts, to which Safia shoots her a deadpan look before promptly moving on to swipe at another guard.

"Wait for me, Safia! Was it something I said!?" Leah shouts as she chases after her friend, much to my own amusement. However, I do realize that there is something else that needs to be done. I need to give Aiden the slip, otherwise he'll be sure to talk about How I'll be part of his plan to bring down Giovanni. I quickly catch up to the two, tapping Leah and Safia on the shoulders to get their attention. "Yeah? What is it now?" Safia asks, getting me to point to the elevator that leads to the lower floors of the Deep Forest Underground Battling Club.

"If you haven't realized this by now, other Pokemon are locked up down there." I remind the Zoroark, who promptly scoffs when she hears what I have to say. "And what does this have to do with us? We're out!" She says, to which I point to myself. "Well once Aiden's people get here, he'll turn to me for tips and tricks about how to beat Team Rocket. If whoever made me catches onto how I ratted them out, he'll make my sister hurt. I don't want that to happen, so I need your help to make a scene. Besides, I wanna help Nova and my Pokemon get out."

Leah sees us conversing, and rushes over to join in once she's done beating up two more guards with Close Combat. "What are you talking about?" She asks, which gets Safia to point to me. "Well, Jay here wants to create a scene using the Pokemon downstairs so he can slip away unnoticed. He's scared that whoever Aiden wants to use him to take down will hurt his sister." She explains to the Lucario, who looks to me suspiciously and focuses for a second as her eyes glow a light blue. Once the glow fades, she nods to the Zoroark for confirmation of what I had said.

"He's telling the truth." She speaks up, getting me to smile wryly as I look her way. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" I ask, before I run off towards the elevator. "Where are you going!?" Safia yells after me, getting me to look back at her once I reach the elevator. "To free my friends, as well as all those Pokemon down there. Freedom's nice. I should know." I reply, pressing the button to take me down to the floor where all the captive Pokemon are being held. However, I hear the sound of paws thumping on ground behind me soon after. Turning around, I see Leah and Safia joining me.

"What're you doing?" I ask them, to which Safia sighs and gestures to the Lucario standing next to her. "She's the one who decided to help you, not me. Besides, I hate owing anyone favors." She replies, Leah looking in my direction while her friend explains the situation. "Well uh, I felt like I owed you something, so I wanted to help you." She adds, to which I pat her on the head. This gets a surprised expression and a gasp out of her, as her face flushes a mite red from embarrassment.

"Thanks, Leah. You're really chivalrous, aren't you? Isn't that supposed to be my job, though? I thought the guy was supposed to be good to the girl, not the other way around." I chuckle, which gets the Lucario to giggle as she lightly bats away my hand with her own paw. However, Safia is quick to interrupt our little moment. "I appreciate what you've done for us, but keep your hands off her." She growls lightly, before she pushes me backwards a little. "Safia! That wasn't very nice!" Leah interjects, stopping her friend from threatening me any further.

"Really, Leah? He's flirting with you, and you're falling for it?" Safia groans, just in time for the elevator to show up with a small ding. "Ladies first." I grin cheekily, gesturing towards the now opened elevator doors. Leah smiles at me and walks in, while Safia shoots me a glare as she walks in after the Aura Pokemon. Shrugging, I simply follow the Illusion Pokemon into the elevator, the doors closing behind us as I press the button to reach the lower floor of the Battle Club.

As we begin our descent, Safia speaks up again. "Come on, Leah. Why fall for this human of all things?" Safia groans as she points to me with a claw, getting the Lucario to blush as she hears the accusations of her friend. "No, I'm not! He's a human, and I'm a Pokemon! It wouldn't be right…" She defends herself, albeit with a little hesitation on her end. Seeing her reaction when confronted really makes me smile, as her timid demeanor is quite the deviation from a run of the mill Lucario. It's a breath of fresh air, to say the least.

"Eh, you can like whatever you wanna like. I wouldn't mind either way." I speak up, startling Leah in the process. "The hell is that supposed to mean?" Safia growls, using her claw to poke my chest as her glare demands answers from me. "What do you think it's supposed to mean? And could you not poke me with your claws? It hurts." I reply, getting the Zoroark to relent as she lifts her claw from my torso. She folds her arms as she glares at me, promptly turning around so her back is turned to me. Welp, look like she isn't talking to me for now.

Seeing as how her friend is a little peeved at me, Leah simply sighs as she addresses me. "Safia has always been protective of me. She's been like this a while after we became friends." She explains, getting me to nod. Safia seems a little unhappy that her friend had waved off her warnings, though. So, I decide to help her out on this front. "Well, I get that. Friends look after friends. She's just worried that I won't be good news for you, that's all." I reply, Safia turning ever so slightly to stare at me from the corner of her eye. Her look isn't one of rage anymore, replaced with a softer, more uncertain glance. Well, we are talking right next to her.

"But why wouldn't you be good news for me? You helped me just now, right?" Leah questions, getting Safia to groan as she hears her friend question my motives. Sighing at her innocence, I gently pat her on the head. "You really are too good for this world, Leah." I tell her in all honesty, shaking my head as she tilts hers in confusion. "I don't understand." The Lucario replies, making me point to myself in order to clear up Leah's misunderstanding.

"Well, us humans take advantage of people that think like you, ya know? We're heartless, and only look after ourselves. We make lots of people and Pokemon alike hurt, and Safia just doesn't want you to hurt." I explain to the sweet Lucario, who nods thankfully to her Zoroark companion. "I know Safia doesn't want me to get hurt, but I think trusting you is a good idea. You seem like a nice human." She answers me, to which I smile. "Heh, glad to know I made a good impression then." I tell her, seeing her smile in kind when she hears what I have to say. Safia spares me a thankful smile as she finally turns to look at me again, getting me to grin.

"Jay? I've been thinking…" Leah speaks up, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "Yeah?" I ask her, to which she fidgets with her own fingers nervously. "W-well, it's about you." She begins, Safia also interested in what she has to say. Just then, the elevator lets off a ding, letting us know that we've already reached the floor that I had wanted to go to. "Sorry, but you can tell me later. I need to find my Pokemon first." I reply, quickly taking off and leaving a slightly disappointed Leah in my wake.

"Come on Leah, we need to go! Jay can't really help himself, ya know!" I hear Safia call out to the Aura Pokemon, making me frown and look over my shoulder at the Zoroark. "I heard that!" I remind her, getting her to playfully stick her tongue out at me. "I know you did!" She snickers, quickly catching up to me and bolting ahead. Leah isn't far behind her, also sprinting at a pace I can only hope to match on my own. "Hey! Wait for me, damn it! Do you even know who we're looking for!?" I groan, trying my best to keep up with the two lupines.

"I found them!" Leah suddenly shouts ahead of me as she stops in place, to which I raise an eyebrow. "That was fast." I mutter, running over to where the Lucario had stopped. "They're inside that cell. I can sense their auras coming from behind the door." She informs me, getting me to nod as I eye the lock on the door of the cell. "I need a move to bust down the door. Think your Close Combat will do the trick?" I ask Leah, who nods as she readies the powerful physical move. Her paws glowing bright red, she quickly delivers a flurry of punches at the door, which falls over in a flash.

"Thanks. Now, go free Nova and the others. They need our help." I tell the Lucario, who nods as she quickly sprints off to find the Volcarona. The door, now covered in dents, connects to the floor with a loud clang and reveals to me the contents of the cell. Namely, a bunch of really surprised and startled Pokemon which I immediately recognize. They all have the same collars around their necks, so that explains the lack of powers. "Mister Jay!" Chell leaps at me, sobbing into my chest as she quickly realizes who I am. Lily also cries as she jumps up to hug me, getting me to pat the two on the head gently. "I was so scared, Sir!" The Petilil weeps, crying softly.

"It's gonna be alright. I'm here now." I soothe as Nesia walks over to wrap her own arms around me, a few tears leaking down her cheeks as well. "I never thought I'd see Master again…" She chokes, barely holding back her own fearful sorrow. Katrina and Alita don't look that much better, the latter flying over to smack me on the head. "Don't make us worry like that, you damn idiot!" Alita yells, some of her own tears dripping down onto my cheek as she berates me. "We thought you got shipped off to who knows where already! We thought you weren't coming back for us!" Dani cries, glaring at me through her own tears.

"Well, I did come back. There's no way I'd ever forget about you. You're important to me, remember?" I assure her, allowing the Cottonee to finally cave in and cry into my shoulder. "Damn it, Jay. Making me cry like this…" She sniffs, mumbling into my shoulder. "We had honestly expected the worst this time, but it would seem that you pulled through once more." Katrina smiles wearily, wrapping her tail around my hand as she sheds a tear of joy. "Ah'll say. We were hecka worried about ya, so we're all glad ta have ya back Jay." Cleo chuckles, looking relieved that I'm more or less okay.

"Glad to be back, Cleo. I promise I won't ever abandon any of you like that ever again. Please forgive me…" I reply, my smile finally breaking and shedding a few tears myself as I reach out to pat my Pokemon on the head, getting Lily to smile at me. "It's okay, Sir. I get that you had to escape first if you wanted to help us." She nods in reply, Dani nodding as well. "Yeah, but try not to take so long next time, alright?" She smirks despite her own tears, to which I nod as I wipe mine and hers away. "I'll keep that in mind, Dani." I grin, chuckling at her humorous comment.

"Uh, hello? In case you haven't noticed, we need to leave right now." Safia interrupts our banter, getting us to look her way. "Aiden's backup will be here soon, and if you don't want to get caught, we have to go!" The Zoroark reminds me, to which I nod as I turn to the gathered Pokemon. "Come on, everyone. We need to go now." I speak up to all of them, getting them to nod as they follow me and Safia out of the cell. However, Safia is suddenly knocked off to the side by a large, blue arm.

"Safia!" I yell, seeing her smack right into the steel wall. "Ugh, my head…" She groans as she tries to stand up, only to be grabbed by a large blue hand that's connected to a familiar looking Seismitoad. "That large frog looks mighty familiar…" Cleo gulps as she stares at the large beast, Chell looking quite frightened of the large toad herself. "Let go, ya big lug!" The Zoroark growls as she tries to free herself, her efforts futile as a familiar voice rings out from behind the large Vibration Pokemon.

"Hello, Jay. We meet again." Jimmy grins sadistically as he walks out from behind his Pokemon, making me grit my teeth in frustration. Meanwhile, the team also narrows their eyes at the prick that had suddenly decided to show himself. And he had to pick the worst possible time, too. "The fuck do you want now?" I spit, glaring daggers at him as Safia continues to struggle in the hand of the Seismitoad that Jimmy's commanding. I see him get rather pissed when I address him like that, but he quickly regains his composure as he holds out a small device in his palm.

"Do you see this device I have in my hand, peasant? This controls the collars of all the Pokemon you have. Without this, I'm afraid getting those little trinkets off them will be nearly impossible!" He cackles, getting me to stare at the collars around the necks of my team. "Hate to say it, but he's right. We tried, but all we got for that was a nasty shock." Alita shudders, seemingly remembering how a past escape attempt on their end had went. Well, gotta talk to him then.

"Where are you going with this?" I calmly ask the little snickering bastard, who stands near his Seismitoad. "Simple. Since you cheated during our last match, I want to fight you again to prove once and for all that I am the better Trainer!" He growls, his Seismitoad smirking as it holds Safia tighter in its grasp. "Agh!" Safia screams, making me wince when I hear something creak inside it's grasp. "Tell your overgrown bullfrog to let Safia go! He's holding her too tightly, ya moron!" I yell at the little bastard, who frowns before pressing a button on the remote.

"Gah!" I suddenly hear the agonizing screams of my teammates beside me, as the collars quickly send volts of electricity coursing through their systems. "Ugh…!" Alita groans in pain, as I see her body spasm uncontrollably. "It hurts…" I hear Nesia groan, as she collapses to the floor in a heap with sparks riddling her form. Without their natural typing to help them, they are all subjected to the pain of being electrocuted as Jimmy cackles in delight. "What did you say to me, peasant!? You'd better change your tone fast, or else your precious animals will suffer even more!" He grins manically at me, getting me to clench my fists in anger as I reply.

"Please, let them go." I growl, loud enough for Jimmy to hear. However, the little asshole decides to take this a step further. "I can't hear you, peasant! Say it again." He grins triumphantly, getting me to clench my teeth this time. "Please, let them go." I yell, to which Jimmy laughs with glee. "That's right, peasant! Now, bow. Beg for my mercy. Beg!" He cackles, as Safia looks on in shock. "Don't do it, Jay! Your pride isn't worth giving to this little shit!" She yells, only for the Seismioad to squeeze her tighter to shut her up as she lets out a yelp of pain.

"Shut it, girlie." The large toad croaks, eyeing her with disdain as she struggles in his iron grip. Kneeling before him, I lower my head onto the floor. "Please, let them go. Please show us mercy." I repeat myself, Jimmy finally relenting and fulfilling his end of the deal. "That's more like it." He nods, releasing his hold on the button and freeing my team from the excruciating pain. He then moves over to plant his foot on my head, cackling with mirth all the while. "Now this is where you belong, Jay!" He grins, as my Pokemon and Safia look on in horror.

"You girls okay?" I ask them from my position, Katrina, Lily and Dani tearing up from what I was doing. "Jay…" Katrina whispers, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sees me being reduced to shameful begging. "Why?" Lily cries, brought to tears by the fact that I had to stoop that low. "Why'd you do it, god damn it!? Why!?" Alita yells at me, getting me to chuckle. "You're all worth it. I told you before, right?" I smile, Cleo not saying a word as her tears fall freely. Even Safia is in shock as she sees me beg for the safety of my team, hardly able to believe what she's seeing.

"How dare you." I suddenly hear Chell growl as she stand to her feet, having seen what had transpired with her own eyes. She gives Jimmy a glare hot enough to rival the sun, her anger burning bright in the hallway as she gets to her feet and pulls out her scalchops. "No one soils Master's pride like that." Nesia rises to her feet as well, allowing Jimmy and I to see the pure, undulating rage streaming from her own expression. Their lips turned into scowls, they scream out in anger as they charge him, both hell bent on taking the little bastard down.

"What's this? I thought you animals had learned how to respect your superiors, but I guess I was wrong. Seismitoad! Pound them into the ground!" Jimmy orders his large toad Pokemon, who grunts as he simply uses his free arm to bash the two Pokemon around. He doesn't even have to use any attacks at all, the two unable to fight back in any way due to their lack of moves to use. Still, they don't give in as they hammer the Vibration Pokemon with their limbs, tails and scalchops in Chell's case. Nesia can't even use Vine Whip, so she resorts to using her tail to hurt the toad.

"Heh. Seriously? You two couldn't even hurt a Tynamo, much less me." The Seismitoad chuckles, before brutally grabbing Nesia by the tail and slamming her right into Chell. The two starter Pokemon are flung into the nearby wall, panting hard and beginning to show some bruises. "Chell! Ness!" Alita yells, seeing the two get beaten down and flung around like ragdolls. "Back down, you two!" Katrina adds, unable to bear seeing her friends get hurt any longer. "Don't be dumb! Ya got too much ta live fer here!" Cleo shouts, trying to get them to listen to reason.

"No! I'm not… giving… up…!" Chell groans, shakily standing to her feet and glaring daggers at Jimmy and his Seismitoad. "We're not… done… just yet…!" Nesia grunts, heaving herself up onto her two feet as well. "You're going down!" Chell screams at the top of her lungs, charging at the large toad again with a mighty roar and slamming her shells hard onto the foot of the large frog. Nesia lets off a venomous hiss, before jumping up to slam her tail down onto the head of the toad, hitting its forehead dead center. The Vibration Pokemon stumbles, actually yelping in pain.

"Ow! You little shits. I was gonna go easy on you two, but it seems like you wanna do this the hard way." The large toad growls angrily, quickly using his wrecking ball of an arm to slam Chell into the wall, allowing me to hear something snap within her as she cries out in agony. "Chell, no!" I yell, struggling to help her. However, Jimmy plants my face down with his foot. "Ah, ah, ah. Defiance must be punished, Jay. That includes those feisty little animals of yours." He cackles, kicking me in the ribs and making me yell in pain.

Grabbing Nesia off of his head, the Seismitoad throws the Servine right into Chell, Nesia crumpling into a heap along with Chell. He then grabs the two by the legs and slams them into the ground repeatedly, letting me see the blood staining the floor every time he slams them into the cold, unforgiving steel over and over. "Ness! Chell! Please don't!" I scream, Jimmy snickering as he watches my misery unfold before him. "They're not going to make it! We need to do something!" Lily weeps, crying as she sees her friends get the stuffing smashed out of them.

"I know, but there's nothing we can do! Damn this stupid collar! Damn it all!" Dani curses, pulling uselessly at her metallic binding accessory before giving up, tears streaking down her face as she's helpless to stop the brutal beating of the two starter Pokemon. Safia closes her eyes tightly as she looks away, tears flowing down her own face as she watches the unfair fight unfold. When the Seismitoad is finally done messing around, he slams the two into the steel floor one more time. "Little pests." He spits, before taking his place back next to Jimmy and nodding to his master.

"Now those little annoyances are out of the way, it's time for…" Jimmy starts, before he's interrupted by Chell using her remaining strength to pick herself up off the ground once more. Nesia is quick to follow suit, using her arms to push herself back onto her feet as well. I wince as I hear Chell's leg gives out a cracking sound, and Nesia's tail hangs limply behind her as she struggles to stand. "Oh, come on! Still not going down after all that!? You have some loyal pets Jay, I'll give you that much." He groans, walking over to bend down and look at the weakened Dewott and Servine.

"Stay down!" He growls, kicking Nesia in the gut and causing her to slam into Chell, the two Pokemon crumpling into a heap once more as the little bastard cackles. "Not so tough now, are you?" He grins darkly, before turning to me once more. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Relieving you of all your dignity." He continues, kicking me in the gut and making me roll over as he laughs in delight. However, he suddenly takes notice of Chell and Nesia still getting back up onto their feet to glare at him.

"You've done the worst thing…" Chell breathes, slowly limping towards the little rich asshole. "…And you will pay." Nesia spits, blood leaking from her mouth as she glowers defiantly at the little bastard of a person. "How are you two still up!? Seismitoad, get them!" Jimmy yells for his bodyguard, who snorts before he charges at the two weak and battered Pokemon. I tear up when I see Chell and Nesia standing together so defiantly to stand up for my pride, even in the face of defeat.

"You runts are gonna get it now!" The Seismitoad growls, as he raises a massive fist to punch the two Pokemon. "Get outta there!" Alita screams desperately, trying to get the two to back off. "Move outta the way!" Dani yells, trying to help them avoid becoming little more than bloody stains lining the floor. However, their cries fall on deaf ears. "You insulted Mister Jay, and fought him unfairly…" Chell begins, readying her scalchops as she speaks up, ready to fight to the bitter end. "You soiled Master's dignity, and used cheap tricks to succeed…" Nesia adds, her eyes showing her rage and determination to win against their towering foe.

"We will not let you hurt him anymore! We will win!" Chell yells, not backing down despite the futility of the situation. "You will regret ever harming him!" Nesia growls, her drive to beat the Seismitoad just as great as Chell's. Damn it, you two! Always so ready to defend me, even when you're sure as hell going to lose…! Jimmy finds this display of sheer defiance rather hilarious, as he cackles gleefully while holding up the button controlling the shock collars.

"Have you forgotten, you stupid animals!? I still have this to put you down!" He grins, before pressing his thumb down onto his empty hand. "Hey, needle dick! If you haven't noticed, there's nothing there." I chuckle, before a familiar shot of string latches onto his mouth, shutting him up. More strings then pin the little prick to the wall, putting him out of order for the time being. "Hey! You didn't forget about us, did you?" I hear the voice of a familiar little Bug Type, looking up to see a Venipede and a Sewaddle falling right for my face. However, I opt to catch them in my arms instead. Meanwhile, Chell and Nesia dodge the fist of the toad, rolling to safety.

"Sorry, but my face is off limits. It's too handsome to act as a landing pad." I grin cheekily, getting the Sewaddle to sigh as she rolls her eyes. "Yeah yeah, smartass." She replies, the Venipede eyeing everyone with guilt as she hands me the remote. "I'm sorry we left you all behind back there. I really didn't want to…" She apologizes, before I promptly silence her with a pat to the head. "Hey, now. Saving your own skin is pretty important. I know how that feels, so don't be too hard on yourself." I assure her, to which she smiles before nodding my way.

"Now that I have this, let's get some vengeance. Shall we, team?" I grin darkly, Dani and Alita getting the exact same expressions of vengeance driven satisfaction as I press the button to release their collars, the devices opening with a click and falling off the necks of my Pokemon. "Now, everyone! Focus fire on the Sesimitoad! Alita, Air Cutter! Cleo, Thunder! Dani, Razor Leaf! Lily, Stun Spore! Katrina, Dark Pulse! Chell, Water Pulse! Nesia, Leaf Storm!" I yell, everyone letting out a battle cry as they all fire their ranged moves at the large toad at once.

The attacks slam into him head on, kicking up a large cloud of dust and getting Alita to smirk in victory. 'Yeah, we nailed 'em good!" She crows confidently, Dani nodding in agreement. "Heh, damn good if ya asked me." She adds, while Lily and Leah sigh in relief. "Whew, I'm glad that's over." The Petilil sighs in relief, just in time for Katrina to lift her ears and swivel them around. "I hear movement in that cloud. He's still not down yet." She growls, her fur standing on end as she becomes alert.

"Stay on your guard." Nesia hisses, Chell nodding as she lifts her scalchops in a defensive stance. "Seriously? After all that!?" The Sewaddle groans, before three large shots of mud shoot right out of the haze and head straight for Alita and Cleo. "Watch out!" Chell shouts, as she and Nesia quickly leap in front of the shots, only to get downed quickly by the fast travelling mud as they slam into them full force. "No!" Nova cries, seeing the two starter Pokemon get downed so quickly. Safia is lying unconscious by his feet, which means that the big lug used her as a shield.

"Crap! Chell! Ness!" I scream, as the Seismitoad chuckles while he steps out of the cloud of smoke. "Jay, if you have a plan, now would be a good time to share!" The Venipede gulps, as I nervously try to figure out any sort of counter attack. The Seismitoad seems relatively damaged with a few scratches on his chest and his arms, but he's up and ready to fight regardless. "Heh, did you really think that would be enough to put me down?" He taunts us, making me clench my fists in rage.

"Team, get ready to attack." I growl, before Alita's yell of anger gets my attention. "Damn it, you sack of shit! You're gonna pay hurt my friends!" The Tranquill growls, spreading her wings as she eyes the Seismitoad with no shortage of killing intent. "Ah'm with ya, Ali. Ah say, let's get us some revenge for Chell and Ness." Cleo snarls, charging up electricity in her wool coal as she readies another electrical attack. Seeing them do that, the Seismitoad smirks at the two as he shakes his head.

"Seriously? That didn't work before, so what makes you think it'll work now?" He chuckles, making Alita glare venomously in reply. "I'm going to kick your ass, that's what!" She screams, Cleo already having built up no shortage of sparks in her fleece. "Like hell we'll quit tryin'! Chell and Nesia didn't give up, and neither will we!" She yells, before they're suddenly engulfed in a radiant, white glow. "What the hell is happening!? I can't see shit!" The Sewaddle groans, using her leaves to shield herself from the light that is coming from the two Pokemon.

"Whew! Finally, a break!" Dani cheers, already knowing the process that was taking place. "I would be inclined to agree." Katrina smiles, while Chell and Nesia smile in knowing as well. "Yup. They're evolving!" I smirk, just in time for the light to fade. Standing in place of the cute Mareep, now stands a taller, less fluffy pink sheep. She appears to be partially sheared, with more of her torso and arms showing from the shaved wool on her pink body. She's also standing on two legs now, with her tail bulb now a light blue color. Cleo is now a flaafy, wool and all.

Just as the light around Alita fades, she spreads her wings to reveal her newer, larger female form. Her white underbelly is now grey, with a shorter yellow beak and a lighter gray surrounding her face. Her lower body is a brown color, with more pronounced yellow irises and a larger, grey tail with markings of lighter grey on it. She also sports a cute looking dark grey tuft of feathers on her head, which adds to her sleek, evolved form. Yup, Alita's an Unfezant now.

"Take this, asshole!" The Unfezant yells, unleashing quite the powerful Air Slash at the Seismitoad. The blades fly through the air at surprising speeds, on top of being quite the impressive size. The number of blades isn't small, either. There's just so many of the things cutting into the Vibration Pokemon at once, it's almost sickening to watch. Meanwhile, Cleo charges up for what I assume to be another Thunder, before she quickly forms four gemstones that levitate around her and blast four beams of shining light at the Seismitoad. The beams prove to be quite effective, as they force it back and bruise the large toad's skin. That, combined with Alita's Air Slash, quickly overpowers the toad, fainting it as soon as the attacks cease.

"Yeah! Nice going, you two!" I grin, hugging the two from behind as they finish their attacks. "Of course! If I'm going to avenge my friends, might as well do it right. Moron." Alita huffs, blushing slightly as she hears me praise her. "Aw shucks, Jay. Ah just did what had ta be done." Cleo chuckles, although she's smiling happily from the praise I'm giving her as well. "Alright, everyone. We need to get out of here, fast." I speak up, cradling Chell and Nesia in my arms to get them out.

"Jay! I found Nova!" I hear Leah call to me from behind us, getting us to turn around and see a familiar Lucario sprinting towards us, with an equally familiar looking Volcarona in tow. "Thanks, Leah. I'll give Safia a lift. We need to leave, now." I speak up, everyone following close behind as we take our leave. "Wait, who are these two?" The Sewaddle asks, eyeing Leah and Safia with a suspicious glance. "I could ask the same." The Lucario replies, getting me to sigh. "Long story. Right now, let's go. I'll explain on the way."


	62. Chapter 62

Chapter 62

[Jay]

"Will she be alright?" Leah asks in a panicky voice, making me nod to calm her down. "She will, she's just resting up is all. The Potions should work their magic soon, and she'll be as good as new." I assure her for what seems to be the fifth time, as Safia nods to affirm my words. "Quit worrying, Leah! I feel better already!" She grins, before wincing as she feels her bones crying out in agony once more. Meanwhile, Chell and Nesia are cradled in my arms for the moment.

"So, I met these two outside the Battle Club because this little girl here wanted to prove herself." I begin, before I am so rudely interrupted by the Venipede. "Hey! That isn't true!" She retorts, getting me to roll my eyes and sigh. "Sure it isn't. Neither was that heartfelt confession, either. As you can see, these two are pretty tomboyish." I add in a sarcastic manner, getting the Venipede to clam up quickly. "Sure they weren't. Dumbass." She huffs, while the Sewaddle glares at me.

"Hey! The hell is that supposed to mean!?" She growls, which I ignore as I gesture to Leah and Safia. "And I met these two lovely ladies during my imprisonment. They helped me bust through the Scolipede we had to fight, and Leah provided the key to the cells. And by key, I mean sheer force. They're hella strong." I introduce the two additional parties to each other, as well as clearing up the suspicion they had for the other. "Lovely, huh?" Safia mutters, seeing Leah blush slightly when she hears the compliment tossed her way. I managed to heal Chell and Nesia once we entered the elevator, so they could move around without much trouble.

I'm Chell. Nice to meet the two of you." Chell nods to the two newest Pokemon around, her expression calm and collected despite just having had fought a Seismitoad recently and getting her bones broken. Nesia gives the two a curt nod, before slipping her tail into the palm of my hand. I return the gesture by giving the Servine's tail a squeeze, which gets her to yelp in surprise. "Master!" She huffs, blushing as I chuckle at her sudden reaction. "Sorry about that, Ness. You okay?" I grin her way, to which she nods.

"I'm glad you're okay, Master." She replies, getting me to smile as I pat her head in reply to her concern. "Well, if your idea of being fine is three broken ribs, then sure. Seriously, though. I'm glad that you're okay too." I add as I rub my hand down her head and neck, seeing her smile softly as I do so. Her scales are cool and smooth to the touch, and she sighs happily as I pet her. Chell simply turns her head to ignore my gesture, although she does give me a longing glance.

"And of course you get your fair share too, Chell. No one's left out." I assure the Dewott, stroking her back gently and feeling the softness of fur on my hand. Her hardened gaze softens for the slightest of moments, savoring my touches to her back as Safia rests atop it. "And what are these two doing here? Didn't they, I dunno, leave us for dead!?" Alita yells into my ear, allowing me to feel her glare from where I'm standing even though she's in the TBA. For the sake of having sufficient elevator space, I had to get most of the team to reside in the TBA for now.

"Hey! We came back to help you in the end, didn't we?" The Sewaddle growls, not sounding too happy about how she's being thanked for her assistance. "You did just leave in the middle of something important, you know. Dunno about you, but that's not really worthy of thanks." Dani adds, her voice equally as untrusting as Alita's. Even Chell and Nesia shoot the bugs glares. In response to the heated glares and disapproving voices sent her way, the Sewaddle huffs. "Hey! I could've just left all of you for dead, easy!" She retorts, getting me to sigh as I place a hand on her head.

"Hey! What the fuck!?" She yells, attempting to chomp down onto my hand. However, I lift it off her just in time, her mandibles clamping down on nothing but air. "I know you didn't leave us for dead in the end, and that's what really matters to me." I assure her in an attempt to calm the raging Bug Type down, Alita quick to protest against my opinion. "But they turned their backs on us! Who knows if they'll do the same thing to us again!?" She growls as she speaks against the two Bug Types, the Venipede looking down guiltily as she hears the accusations.

"But, they didn't just leave us for dead. Leaving for dead involves a complete lack of saving, and they didn't do that in the end, now did they?" I reason with the Unfezant and the Cottonee, getting both of them to the accusations for a second. I notice the gazes of the two starter Pokemon softening already, allowing me to find some relief that I'm getting through to them. "The most important thing that labels someone as who they are isn't what they did before, but what they're trying to do and what they are doing. They just tried to help out, even though they left earlier."

"Jay…" The Venipede sniffs, tearing up from my defense of her. The Sewaddle is also listening in, her gaze softening once she hears what I have to say. "And that's more than enough reason for me to give them a second chance." I reply, suddenly feeling the Venipede leap up off my shoulder and furiously nuzzle the crook of my neck. Chell and Nesia quickly glare at her, raising their limbs to defend me, but I hold them back with a shake of my head. Judging by the shaking of her little form and the wetness on my shoulder, the Venipede's crying.

"Thank you, Jay! I thought you'd never forgive me after what we did!" She sobs, as I pet her crying form gently. "There, there. No need to cry." I comfort her, as I turn to the Sewaddle to express my thanks. "Thanks for the save back there. Your String Shot is on point, for you to snatch the remote out of the little bastard's hand like that." I nod her way, getting her to eye her Venipede friend as I thank her. "Well, she was the one that decided to come back and help you guys. I just tagged along, that's all." She explains as she averts her gaze from mine, although her small smile indicates that she took the compliment nicely.

"You really are a nice guy, aren't ya?" Safia comments, to which I shrug. "Seriously, why does everyone tell me that? I just did what I felt was right." I defend, Nova giggling as she watches us from her side of the lift. "He truly is a nice human. All the more reason that I wish to join him." The Fire Moth Pokemon adds, Leah smiling as she hears what the two occupants of the elevator have to say. Nesia and Chell simply share a knowing glance, already fully aware of the kindness I could show. The Venipede smiles at me gratefully, allowing me to wipe her tears with my fingers.

"Wait a sec. What does she mean by join you?" Dani suddenly speaks up when she realizes what the Volcarona had said, Chell and Nesia also sharing the same realization as they look to me for answers. In response to their confusion, I nod. "Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you girls." I realize myself, gesturing to the large floating Volcarona beside me and Nesia. "Everyone, this is Nova the Volcarona. As I have noticed recently, most of you are in fact weak to fire. We have Nesia, Dani, and Lily as of now, so I decided to fight fire with fire, if ya know what I mean." I joke, making Alita and the two other bugs nestled on my shoulders groan as I spit out the pun.

"Damn it, Jay! You just had to say that, didn't you!?" Alita sighs, allowing me to fully feel her frustration from the AVR within my TBA. "That was so bad! Seriously!?" The Sewaddle adds, smacking the crook of my neck with her leafy head. "God, you can be so dumb…" The Venipede sighs, making me grin. "Hey, puns really lighten the mood. That is unless, they end up bugging you." I grin cheekily, using my hand to block the attacks made by the Sewaddle. "Argh! You damn idiot!" Alita yells into my ear, Chell smiling a little wider as she hears me spread the joy of puns around. "Jay, that was darn terrible!" Cleo snorts, giggling at the bad humor.

"Nice one, Jay. I can see Ali's face from here, and I can tell you that it's freaking hilarious!" Dani snickers, to which I chuckle in reply. "Dani, maybe you should stop encouraging him to make puns. Alita doesn't like them…" Lily reminds the Cottonee of the major hatred for puns that our avian friend has, but Dani simply shrugs her warning off. "Oh come on, Lily! Have a little fun once in a while, will ya?" She replies nonchalantly, as Leah smiles wryly at my terrible attempt to get everyone laughing. "I agree, Lily. A little humor never hurt anyone." Katrina remarks.

"God, that was bad…" Safia grins herself, snickering as Nova giggles lightly in reply to my bad joke. Nesia simply lets loose an eye roll in my general direction, her cute smile betraying her true feelings once more. "Seriously though Nova, welcome to the team. I hope you'll enjoy your travels with us from now on, eh?" I address the Volcarona, who nods as she nuzzles my neck with her white fur. "Hey! Getting smothered over here! Geez…" The Sewaddle spits, crawling away from the large moth's show of affection to rest atop my head. In response to Nova's action I opt to pet her on the head and caress her horns gently, getting her to sigh happily.

"I think I will enjoy my stay here." Nova speaks up, to which I grin. "Yeah, so long as you can deal with his puns. Seriously, they suck major ass!" Alita groans, getting Leah and Safia to snicker as they hear the Unfezant fire off that little remark. Just then, the elevator lets off a ding, letting the occupants of the lift know that it has reached it's destination. "Well, we're here." I comment, stepping out of the elevator first, followed by the Pokemon within. I wonder if Aiden's people got here yet.

However, I don't need to ponder on that for long. As soon as I round the corner, I can see that people are getting hauled away and locked into police vehicles left and right, handcuffed by Pokemon Rangers and completely unable to run away. I'd assume these to be the guys that had taken part in the goings on in the Battle Club, judging by the familiar faces I had seen before lining the arena. "Who are these guys?" Safia asks, getting me to gesture to the R symbol on their arms. "Those Symbols mean they're with Aiden." I reply, inwardly cursing my bad luck. Shit, this is bad.

"This does not bode well, Jay." Nova gulps, getting me to nod grimly in reply. "Yeah, I know. Keep acting normal, everyone. And whatever you do, do not mention that I'm related to Team Rocket." I warn them, Chell and Nesia raising an eyebrow in response. "Why not, Sir? They're good people, aren't they?" Lily asks, to which I sigh. "Look, as soon as they know I was their secret experiment, they'll lock me up and separate you girls from me. I'll never be able to see any of you again, because I'm too busy being a lab rat to do that." I reply, Chell and Nesia tensing up as they hear what I have to say.

"I won't let them do that, Mister Jay." Chell growls, Nesia looking equally as angry. "Neither will I." She assures me, getting Alita and Dani to let out sounds of agreement. "Yeah! Like hell I'll let these guys tear us apart!" Alita yells angrily, Dani nodding to show her agreement. "Just act normal, everyone." I remind them, before continuing to walk towards the door. As I look around, I see the same guy that I had downed before with my joy buzzers getting pushed into a police vehicle himself. "Go on in, you sick bastard." The girl pushing the guy spits, a red R symbol on her arm. However, as soon as they guy sees me, he growls as the doors close.

"You'll get yours, you freak of nature!" He yells angrily, before the doors slam right in his face and shut him up before he could say anymore. Now that I take a look at the girl for myself, she seems to be no older than twenty. Well I could be wrong, but still… "What's his deal?" I ask to no one in particular, the Ranger girl catching wind of what I had said and eyeing me suspiciously. "Who are you?" She asks me, getting me to shrug. "I dunno. Is that important? I was just passing through, and I got caught by some people calling themselves Team Rocket." I reply, gesturing to my handcuffs to emphasize my point.

This doesn't get the girl to lower her guard though, as she stares at the number of Pokemon around me. "You a Trainer, kid?" She asks, seeing Chell and Nesia behind me. "Yeah, I am. I guess that's why they kidnapped me, huh?" I simply go with whatever conclusion she cooked up by herself, as I'd rather not get this hotheaded chick fired up. "Could you get these cuffs off me? They're seriously chafing my wrists." I ask the Ranger, who curtly nods and motions for a Bisharp to come over. "Bisharp, deal with the cuffs please." She sighs, the Bisharp complying and slicing them up.

Once freed of my restraints, I smile as I feel the magic coursing through me once again. "Thanks, miss." I thank the girl, who nods as she eyes my Servine and my Dewott. "So, how did you get two Starters? 'Cause I don't remember a Trainer being able to pick more than one starter Pokemon at once." She speaks up, her voice and her gaze now warning me not to lie to her. Chell and Nesia both eye her with contempt as they ready to defend me from the potential threats of the Ranger girl, but I prove that I can handle myself.

"Well, I saved this Servine from her Trainer when she was a Snivy. She was getting beaten up for being weak, so I decided to step in. She decided to join me later on, after she had healed up." I reply, looking to Nesia and seeing her nod in reply. The Ranger glares at me for a few seconds, relenting once she had failed to make me stutter or back down. "Well, I can't say you're lying. But you'll still have to wait until our Psychic Types get here to prove your story." She replies, getting me to sweat bullets. Shit. If they read my mind, then there's no hiding my past from the Rangers!

"Jay! Really nice to see you so soon." Fortunately for me, my savior appears in the form of a pink blob no higher than my lower leg and a slightly chubby man in a trench coat. "Jelly, you really should wait up for me. You could get into trouble, ya little autist." And the familiar boot of Aiden the Black Ops Specialist stomps down onto Jelly's pink form, crushing it into paste. However, the goo quickly travels up Aiden's leg and onto his shoulder, rematerializing to form one peeved looking Ditto. "Whatever, Aids. You're just scared I'll take all the potential girls from you." He huffs, getting Aiden to smirk.

"Yeah, and by getting all the girls you mean attracting all the attention to yourself." He retorts, before he holds up his hand in a greeting gesture. "Oh, it's you. Hello again, Jay." He addresses me, to which I smile. "Heya, Aiden. How's it going?" I greet the Black Ops Specialist in kind, his familiar face quite the relief for me."You know each other?" The Ranger girl asks him, getting Aiden to shrug. "Kinda. I helped him bust out, and he helped me free the Pokemon. They're all with him." He explains as he gestures to my Pokemon, which quickly wipes the suspicion from her face.

"I'll take this from here, Julie. You just go on ahead and check up on the Pokemon that were locked up, okay? They'll most likely be in need of comforting." He turns to the Ranger girl, who nods and salutes him. "Yes, Sir. I'll take care of them." She affirms her understanding for his command, leaving quickly to do her thing. With her out of earshot, Aiden turns to face me. "I'm glad to see you stuck around. You make friends quick, I'll give ya that." He smiles, while I begin to look a bit apprehensive about what he had wanted from me. Damn, I kinda don't wanna let him down now.

"You look a little down. What's on your mind?" Luckily for me, Aiden notices and quickly decides to confront me about it. "You know about my end of the deal?" I ask the Black Ops Ranger, to which he nods. "A deal? What is this deal that you made?" Katrina asks, confused as to what Aiden and I were mentioning. "A deal, Sir?" Lily asks, getting me to sigh. "You'll see what I mean." Chell and Nesia shoot a glance at the guy when they see my own hesitation to speak to him, but I continue regardless.

"Well, I'm having second thoughts about this." I finish my sentence, to which the Black Ops Ranger raises an eyebrow. "Hey! Come on, kid! We didn't bust your ass outta jail just to hear you say that you wanted out! We wanted some help with the whole taking down Team Rocket business, ya know." Jelly groans in exasperation, very much oblivious to the death glares Chell and Nesia were sending his way. Any other Pokemon would have been frozen with fear right about now, but not this Ditto.

In response to the Ditto's accusation, I growl as I point a finger at him. "You really are insensitive, aren't you?" I ask him sarcastically, getting the little pink blob of goo to snarl at me in kind. "The fuck is that supposed to mean, boy?" He responds, getting Aiden to step in and resolve the situation. "Both of you, calm down right now." He tries to reason with us, before the Ditto takes it a step too far. "There's no reasoning with selfish kids." Jelly spits, getting me to snap and suddenly approach the little shape shifter and glare at him with enough venom to kill off an Aggron.

"Selfish? I'm selfish!? You have no idea how it feels, to waste away in a lab your entire life! You have no idea what it's like, to live in a world where you're treated like the scum of the earth! You have no idea what it's like to live at the mercy of people every day, living off what they give to you out of pity! You have no idea about the looks of disgust and disdain people give you for being poor, even though you're only a kid and can do nothing about it! You know NOTHING!" I scream, my heated glare and sudden outburst catching everyone off guard.. Jelly actually looks scared, making me feel a sense of sick satisfaction.

"Stop! You're losing control!" Aiden shouts, pulling me away and looking me directly in the eyes. Panting as I glare daggers at the little shit, I grunt as I take a step back. "Mister Jay?" Chell places a paw on my chest, allowing me to see the genuine concern and tears welling in her eyes. "Sir…" Lily sniffs, sounding as if she's on the verge of tears. Nesia also looks worried for me, while Nova, Leah and Safia stare at me due to the sudden outburst. They seem to be the most shocked of them all, making me smile wryly as I chuckle sheepishly.

"Whoops. I guess I did lose control there, huh?" I speak up, before I see Nova, Leah and the Venipede tear up as they eye me. "What? Was it something I said?" I ask, before Leah rushes over to hug me. She buries her head in my chest as she sobs, her tears staining my shirt. "I… I had no idea… And I just left you for dead all over again…" The Venipede sniffs, looking down as she cries from what back story I had revealed to them. "Wow. Just… wow." The Sewaddle shakes her head in disbelief, Safia looking at me as well. "Geez, you went through all that? Didn't you have parents or something?" She asks, getting me to shake my head.

"Nope. Dad died when I was five, and I lived with my sister ever since." I reply, Safia quickly clamming up just in time for Leah to speak up, sniffing as she looks at me sympathetically. "You went through all that, and still you decided to help us?" She chokes, to which I pet her on the head gently as I wipe her tears away. "Don't cry for what I've been through, Leah. What's important is that I do what I can now. Anyone can be a good person, if they try." I reply, patting the Venipede gently as she sobs. "I'm so sorry, Jay! I shouldn't have left you!" She weeps pitifully as I address her, to which I wipe away her tears of sadness as well.

"Hey, now. Don't cry. I forgave you, remember? Besides, you cared enough to regret, and that's proof enough for me that you're pretty nice yourself." I chuckle, getting the small insect to smile as she nods. "You're such a big softie, you know that? You dumbass." The Venipede giggles despite herself, Leah nodding in agreement. "You got that right." She adds, the Sewaddle and Safia shake their heads in disbelief. "You are way too nice for your own good, Jay." The Zoroark sighs as she eyes me with a wry smile, getting me to grin.

"I know I am, Safia. But to me, it's worth it." I reply, Nova smiling as she nuzzles me affectionately. Chell and Nesia smile as well, no less comforted by their Trainer's big heart. "That still doesn't make you less selfish for what you're about to do." Jelly points out, Aiden sighing as he turns to face his Ditto. "Just let him talk first, Jel. See what he has to say." Aiden speaks up, getting the Ditto to reluctantly back off. "Fine. Doesn't mean I have to listen to his spiel, though." He huffs, before he slips away and melds into Aiden's trench coat. With Jelly out of the picture, Aiden turns to me.

"Sorry about that. He's not really that good of a people person." He apologizes, getting me to nod in reply. "Yeah, I see that alright." I grin, Aiden laughing in kind. "Anyways, about the whole taking down Giovanni thing. I'm worried about how he's going to send his men after me when this all blows over. Not to mention the amount of people that would want to make news outta me whenever I walk into public, and all the smugglers and crazy terrorists just waiting to add me to their arsenals. I'll never be able to live a normal life, and that's all I want my sister to have."

"Well I get where you're coming from, but you're still the best lead we have if we wanna take down Team Rocket." Aiden replies, hearing me plead my case. "Please, just grant me this one request! I'm not asking for much, and I'm sure you'll find more evidence besides me! I just want a normal life, for me and my team. I care about them, and my sister too much to take this risk." I beg the Black Ops Ranger, getting down on my knees and begging him. "Mister Jay…" Chell sniffs, seeing me beg for her safety without a second thought. "Master…" Nesia whispers, equally as moved.

"Jay, you idiot…" Alita and Dani sniff, seeing me plead for her own well being really touching her heart. "Jay…" Katrina and Nova whisper as they look at me, reducing myself to begging in order to ensure their future. "Darn it, Jay…" Cleo speaks up, trying to hold back the sorrow in her voice. Sighing, Aiden thinks this over for a while, before he finally comes to a conclusion.

"Alright, then. You've convinced me enough, Jay." He tells me as he gets up, to which I look at him hopefully. "Really? Ya mean it?" I ask him, hardly believing the words that had just come out of his mouth. "Yeah. I'll just tell the higher ups this was another Trainer kidnapping case, nothing more. And as for what the manager said about you being intimate with your Liepard, I'll just look the other way, seeing how your Pokemon all seem to like you so much." He nods to affirm his answer, getting me to beam as I hug him tightly.

"Thank you, Aiden! You have no idea how much this means to me!" I smile, thanking the man as he pats me on the back. "Somehow, I already think I know this means the world to you." He chuckles, before hands me a familiar looking bag. "Here's your stuff back, before I forget. Take care, Jay. I better not see you around again." He waves to me, to which I nod. "I'll make sure to remember that, Aiden. Thanks again!" I wave back, leaving the Battle Dome as I walk past the rest of the Rangers. Once I'm out, I hug Chell and Nesia joyfully, laughing gleefully all the while.

"Yes! We get to stay together, everyone! Isn't that great?" I laugh, the two starter Pokemon smiling happily with me before looking concerned once more. "Mister Jay, you're crying." Chell points out, to which I feel my cheeks for moisture. Surely enough there is some, and I wipe the lines of salty water away. "Sorry, Chell. I'm just really freaking happy, that's all." I chuckle, Alita sighing as she hears me say that. "You're such an idiot, Jay. He probably would've let you off the hook, anyways." She reminds me, Dani nodding in agreement. "Ali does have a point this time, Jay." She adds.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" The Unfezant growls at the Cottonee, getting me to chuckle as Katrina giggles. Chell and Nesia can't help but smile themselves, while the Venipede smiles herself. Nova smiles as well, wrapping her appendages around my arm as she look into my eyes, getting me to smile at her in kind. "And I thought I would not be able to join you, Jay." She admits, to which I grin as I stroke her horns. "Nah, I'd never let that happen." I chuckle, Nova sighing happily as she feels me gently caress her horns.

"I'm happy we get to stay with you too, Sir." Lily adds, making me smile as well. "Same here, Lily. And I'll make sure that it stays that way." I assure her, hearing her let out a happy sound as she hears me say that. "You'd better make sure, you idiot! Or else I'll never forgive you!" Alita warns me playfully, getting me to smirk as I hear her warning. "And that goes double fer me, Jay!" Cleo also pitches in, making the warning all the more important. "Alright, then. In order to avoid that, I'll make damn sure it stays that way from here on out." I assure the Unfezant and the Flaafy, who grin as they both nod in satisfaction of my answer.

"Uh, Jay?" Leah suddenly speaks up, to which I turn to eye her. "That's me. What is it, Leah?" I ask the Lucario, who looks at the ground sheepishly once she notices my gaze meet hers. "I'd like to join your team, if that's not too much to ask." She answers my question with a meek tone, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "Wait, what with the what!? Are you sure about this, Leah?" Safia coughs, seemingly having choked on her own spit for a second. "I am, Safia. You of all people should know that I am very serious about getting stronger." Leah answers, her expression affirming her choice in the matter. Well, I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this of all things.

"Well, I'm not against the idea. Tell me why, though. Why choose to travel with me all of a sudden?" I ask her, Leah looking at Chell and Nesia. "I used to watch humans battle each other in the woods, back when I was training alone. Their Pokemon would be so powerful and skilled in their bouts, and I wished for the longest time to be like that someday. So, I indirectly wanted to be trained by a human. However, I quickly learned from personal experiences and from Safia that humans couldn't be trusted." She explains, getting me to nod as I listen to her past.

"However, you changed all of that. You showed me that humans could be kind, and even treat Pokemon as their equals and friends. That's why I want to join you, to be stronger that I could ever be alone." She tells me, a determined look in her eyes as she eyes me. "Well if that's the case, then I'm coming along too." Safia speaks up, still atop Chell's back. "Safia?" Leah asks her friend, the Zoroark nodding to the Lucario as she shifts her attention. "Yeah, Leah. I'm for real this time around. After all, gotta make sure you stay outta trouble, ya know?" She grins, Leah sighing in reply.

"You're never going to let that go, aren't you?" She shakes her head, making Safia grin wider as her gaze grows cheeky. "That's what friends are for, right? Besides, going with Jay isn't going to be the worst choice in the world." She adds, which I promptly ignore. "That rude comment aside, it's nice to see two new faces on the team. The speech wasn't really a requirement for joining, but I welcome you aboard regardless. I hope you'll find our company bearable." I grin in response to her request, holding out my hand in a friendly gesture. Leah smiles as she sees me accept her offer to accompany me, placing her paw in my hand to affirm her choice.

You know the old saying? You know, the one that goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me? Yeah, I guess the shame's on Leah now. The sound of a fart resounds throughout our neck of the woods, as my whoopee cushion trap works to perfection. "Heh, gotcha again, Leah. You really need to quit falling for these." I chuckle, Safia laughing out loud after she realizes what's going on. The Venipede and the Sewaddle are quite surprised, not expecting the sudden fart. Chell has a small smile gracing her features, the Dewott still quite the sucker for humor.

"Hah! That was a good one." Safia snickers, while Leah smiles wryly at me once she realizes what I had done. "That was darn bad!" Cleo giggles, finding my light humor to be a nice outlet of laughs."Seriously!? How many bad jokes do you have!?" The Sewaddle groans in exasperation, glaring at me while the Venipede simply shakes her head in slight amusement. "Trust me, he's got a lot of 'em." Alita sighs, sharing in the irritation of the Bug Type as she hears me chuckle. "That I can attest to." Katrina giggles, Nesia rolling her eyes once she hears the funny noise.

"I am rather interested in how you find the time to create such terrible jokes." Nova asks me, to which I look her in the eyes. "It's just like spending time with people and Pokemon you like. For what you enjoy, you make the time." I reply, patting the Volcarona on the head. "I see. It is safe to assume that you enjoy this as much as I do, then." Nova giggles in reply, nuzzling her head into my hand as she feels it caress her horns. "So you like pissing people off?" The Sewaddle quips, making me shake my head. "No. Jokes are only funny if they're bad." I tell her, Dani smirking as I say that.

"You got that right." She adds, Lily sighing as her friend throws in her two cents about the matter. "You really shouldn't encourage him like this, Dani." She reminds the Cottonee, getting Cleo to shake her head. "Eh, they ain't that bad. 'Sides, he's right about the part about jokes bein' bad." She adds, before I gesture for the Pokemon standing to follow me. "Come on, everyone. Before we get to the next town, there's something we need to do." I remind them, getting Chell to raise an eyebrow.

"What are we doing now, Jay?" She asks, getting me to gesture to the two Bug Types sitting on my shoulders. "These two, remember? We need to get her back to her swarm." I reply, pointing to the Venipede for emphasis. "Then let us be off." Nesia speaks up, looking ahead to watch out for danger ahead of me, while Chell nods to her friend and also keeps her eyes peeled. They may be hurt and recovering for now, but with two devoted Starter Pokemon like those two by my side, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel much safer.

 **Author's Note: Heya, everyone. It's me! Well, I have a question for all of y'all. Do you feel like this story needs some improvement? Seriously though, I feel like I'm in over my head, with all the massive things I have planned for the future of this series. Well, I'll try my best to please, especially since some people were kind enough to point out one crucial thing. If Jay's harem grows even more past this point, then I'll have to increase the number of words in my stories and make sure to watch out for everyone in the team. I'm sure you would like that, wouldn't you? Eh, having just watched Deadpool for the very first time, I'm a little dead in the water here. Wish me luck in being a greedy ass, and I hope you all enjoy my stuff as always!**

 **Have fun and take care,**

 **Roccer**


	63. Chapter 63

Chapter 63

[Jay]

"So you just decided to help those Scolipede out?" Safia gawks in disbelief, hardly believing that I had seen something so fierce and large, much less survived a talk with one. "Yeah. The Venipede's her daughter, so that's all the proof you need." I reply, gesturing to the little Venipede perched on my shoulder. "He's right." The Venipede nods in the direction of the Zoroark, who looks to with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, so she isn't in your team? I thought you were smarter, using her as a hidden weapon or something." She smirks, making me frown in response. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, Safia. I really do appreciate you disintegrating my pride like that." I sigh, the Zoroark snickering as she rests on my back. "Anytime, Jay." She smirks at me, Leah smiling wryly as she shrugs.

"She's always had a knack for friendly insults. I hope you don't mind too much." The timid Lucario apologizes, to which I shake my head. "Eh, no problem. I know Ali isn't the most supportive Unfezant in the world when it comes to my puns. She's rather un-paw-suaded to change her views, either. It's im-paw-sible, I tell you!" I grin, Chell unable to hold back her soft smile once she hears me crack a few more puns. Damn it, she looks cuter than ever when she does that...

"Ugh, really!? Didn't you fire off enough of those already!?" The Sewaddle groans in annoyance, Alita seconding the opinions of the Bug Type. "Damn it, you stupid idiot! Can't you go five seconds without making a pun?" She rages from the TBA, while Nesia simply looks to me and rolls her eyes. "Of course not. I wouldn't be a good pun master if I didn't make puns, would I?" I reply, Alita only groaning in reply.

"That isn't even your job!" She yells in exasperation as Nova giggles for a bit, joining Cleo in her laughter as they hear me shoot off the joke. "Quick to make use of opportunities, I see." The Volcarona smiles, my grin only growing wider as she says so. "Of course. I make good use of my time, making punny jokes like this." I chuckle, the Sewaddle letting off a sigh as she bashes her head against my neck. "Quit it!" She growls, her Venipede friend unable to pry a smile off her features. "Really, Jay? Now isn't the time for your bad sense of humor." The Venipede replies, rolling her eyes.

"Anyways, we're going to bring the Venipede back to her swarm. Then, we'll continue our journey." I finish, Safia nodding her head in understanding. "Right, right. But do any of you know where we're even going?" She asks, right before Nesia stops abruptly behind us. She lets her long and forked tongue flicker in the air for a few moments, before pointing at the trees to the right of us with her tail.

"The path back to the Scolipede nest is that way." The Serperior speaks up, her eyes locked on mine for the time that she speaks to me. She eyes me softly, but her neutral expression keeps that secret well guarded. "Then let's get going! I'll get rid of these branches real quick!" Chell replies, nodding Nesia's way in thanks as she walks through the trees. Well, walking isn't quite it. More like she raises her scalchops to slash apart the various branches blocking the way. Still, it clears a path.

"Woah! That was so cool! Dani gawks, having barely seen how the Dewott had drawn her weapon, cut through the branches and sheathed them back. "Ah'll say. That was impressive, Chell!" Cleo adds,Chell nodding to her friends in reply, her smile showing her appreciation for the praise. "That was smooth, Chell. Powerful and fast, too." I add, Chell lowering her head to hide the pink flooding her face.

"Thanks, Jay. Now, let's go." She replies, making me shake my head as she carries on, flustered by my compliment. Hmm, she isn't using the Mister Jay namesake anymore. What's up with that? Meanwhile, Nesia trails behind me, so I decide to talk to her for a bit. "Nice going, Ness. What'd ya pick up with that tongue of yours?" I ask her, getting her to simply stand there, a blush forming on her calm face. "Nesia, are you okay? Your face is heating up a little…" Leah asks, concerned for her.

"I… I picked up Master's musk. It's the thing about Master that smells strongest, so detecting it wasn't that big of a deal…" She whispers, her voice barely audible as she explains to our group. Leah and Nova blush when they hear that, while the Venipede and Sewaddle look confused. "Okay, I have no idea what that means." The Sewaddle groans, trying her best to figure out what Nesia was referring to.

"O-oh my…" Leah squeaks as she crosses her legs, her face having heated up a few degrees, while Nova simply eyes me with a humored look. "Well, at least she was honest with us." She tries to alleviate my own embarrassment, to no avail. Coughing, I try to conceal my own red face as I motion for the rest of the team to get going. "Come on, then. Any more standing around here and we'll lose Chell." I speak up, walking away at a brisk pace. Damn hormones. Luckily for me, Safia hadn't heard.

"Wait, I don't get what Nesia meant." The Venipede questions, still rather confused as to what the Servine had told us. "That isn't important right now. I'll explain it to you later, okay?" I grin wryly, as I hear Katrina giggling from the confines of the TBA. "Well, Nesia is by no means lying. You do smell rather strong, especially during our… activities last night." She giggles, making me blush even deeper.

"Katrina, no. Now isn't the time for discussions of such a topic." I warn the Liepard, as Lily and Dani look to me from the TBA screen. "What's not to talk about? I really wanna know what Ness meant!" Dani frowns, Lily shaking her head in protest of the Cottonee's statement. "But if it bothers Mister Jay so much, then we shouldn't pressure him into telling us!" She reminds Dani, making me smile as I hear her kind words. Lily, thank you for being so caring and thoughtful!

"That's fine! I'm sure he won't mind, right Jay?" The Sewaddle grins cheekily, tapping the crook of my neck with her leafy head as she asks me. They may not listen to you Lily, but I do… Luckily, I am rescued from embarrassment by the sudden fiery presence of a certain Volcarona glaring angrily at them, her wings already forming some semblance of her species signature move as scales fall from her wings.

"Do not force him to, please." Nova says that calmly, but her flaming form does not help to warm things up. Quite the contrary, her gaze and calm demeanor serve to lower the temperature of the room by a few degrees as she does so. "Okay, I get it!" The Sewaddle gulps and quickly nods, fearful of the damage such a Fire Type could cause to her, due to her apparent weakness to the Fire Typing.

"Nova, please calm down! You might burn the trees!" Leah yelps, stepping back from the angered Moth. With the threat of being burned to death in the most agonizing way possible, Dani and the Sewaddle both back down from teasing me. Seeing her sudden and violent reaction, I pet Nova gently on the head. "Calm down, Nova. They were just poking fun. There's no need to get all fired up about it." I joke as I calm her down, getting her flames to immediately dissipate as she giggles.

"Calmed down now, I see." I smile, while the large Fire Moth Pokemon nods in reply to my question. "Indeed I have. I do realize that was a rather unnecessary action on my part. Can you two forgive me?" She looks at the Sewaddle guiltily, before bowing her head down low. "Eh, that's fine. Just try not to roast me alive next time, alright?" Dani grins in reply, having shaken off the threat of death rather quickly. "Yeah, yeah. What she said." The Sewaddle adds, Nova smiling happily as they accept her apology. Leah and I sigh in relief, having averted a fire crisis.

"God, that was scary." Alita gulps, staring down the Fire Moth with some level of fear. "Ah'll say. The way that she warned y'all was chillin, ta say the least." Cleo adds, making me nod as well. "I know what you mean there." I grin wryly, before I quickly notice one of two things. One, the sun is setting quickly which signifies the nearing of night time. Two, the setting sun is lowering our visibility which increases the chances of us getting ambushed or separated from each other.

Seeing Chell a little ways ahead of us, I call out to her. "Hey, Chell! Come back, will ya?" I ask the Dewott, who quickly returns to my side with a brisk pace. "What is it?" Safia asks, having been resting atop my back for quite some time now. "Well, we should stop here and rest up for the night. The news can wait for now, and I think it's more important that we rest up so we can make it out of here in one piece." I suggest to everyone, Chell and Nesia nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, a nap sounds great right about now." Safia yawns, stretching her limbs while still riding Chell. "I agree. A break would be well appreciated." Katrina complies without a second thought, while Nova and Leah both nod to me as well. "I see no problem in taking a break." Nova adds, while, the Sewaddle agrees as well. "I could use a nap." She yawns, while the Venipede looks a little concerned for her swarm.

"Don't worry about it. We can tell your swarm later. Good news can wait, for now. We need some rest. Can't go back to your parents looking tired, eh? Gotta at least look the part of an awesome hero of the group." I convince the Venipede, who smiles as she nods in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. Let's rest up." She speaks up, before I hear Dani whoop in rejoice. "Yes! Break time!" She cheers, making me sigh.

"You didn't even do all that much, Dani." I remind the Cottonee, who huffs as she hears me say that. "Hey! It takes a lot of effort to be scared for your friend's life, ya know!" She retorts, while Katrina giggles with mirth. "Yeah! Supporting isn't easy, Jay!" Alita adds, making me roll my eyes. "Okay, okay. You've made your point. Now come on outta there, lazybones." I reply, tapping the button to let them out of the TBA. The process is quick, the five Pokemon inside quickly rematerializing before me.

"Whew, it was gettin' stuffy in there! It's great to smell that fresh outside air again!" Cleo sighs, Katrina stretching her limbs as Alita immediately begins to flap her wings. "Ali, you'll see the flame from up here. Come down when it's burning bright, okay? Don't want you getting lost." I chuckle, the Unfezant nodding in reply. "There's no way I'd get lost, moron." She rolls her eyes, before taking to the skies to enjoy herself for a while. Meanwhile, I lower Safia to the ground and off my back while the Sewaddle and Venipede crawl off my shoulders.

"Thanks." The Zoroark nods my way, getting me to give her a smile in return. "Don't mention it. Okay, everyone. You can do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't involve trashing my stuff. I like my stuff the way it is." I nod to the Pokemon, who quickly turn around to converse. Lily and Dani seem to be hitching it off with Nova of all Pokemon, which is rather unexpected. Even Cleo's listening in. I mean, wouldn't you be scared of something that could burn you alive without much fuss?

"So, what's your deal with him, anyways? From what I've seen, Liepard aren't the most trustworthy Pokemon around." Safia asks Katrina, the Liepard in question looking to me for a second before answering. "Well, you have seen how nice he is. It's largely because he was the first to be so caring of me for the longest time." She smiles sadly, most likely reminiscing of some past events. But, she doesn't dwell on that for long. The Venipede is listening in to the small talk, while the Sewaddle simply decides to take a nap.

"Now I need some wood, some rocks to surround the fire and a good source of food." I mutter to myself, Chell and Nesia seemingly picking up on what I had said. Right after they nod to each other, they get up and go to work, Chell standing upright and using her scalchops to cut down a few of the low hanging branches around our site, while Nesia uses her vines to gather rocks and laying them in a circle.

Once they're done, they stand at attention in front of me, making me gape at how fast they had done those tasks. Seriously, that would've taken me half an hour at least! "Great job, you two. Saved me a bunch of time there." I smile at the two as I get over the shock of them doing things for me, as Chell and Nesia blush a little due to the praise. "It was nothing." Nesia replies, her tone collected as she looks away.

"You do so much for us, Jay. This was the least we can do." Chell replies, before they return to their sitting positions beside the circle of rocks. "Woah! You finished setting things up already? That usually takes so much longer!" Dani speaks up, voicing the team's opinions of surprise at the sudden setup before them. "Well, now that we have the materials, let's get some food. Anyone up for some meat?" I ask the group, Lily looking rather apprehensive of the idea.

"Don't worry, Lily. I have berries in my pack if you don't want any." I reply, the Petilil nodding thankfully in response. "Thank you, Sir." She smiles, getting me to nod before turning to Chell and Nesia. "I'm gonna go find some food. Wanna come?" I ask the two of them, the starters quickly agreeing to the idea. "Kat, keep an eye out for danger, okay? The last thing I need is for everyone to get into trouble." I tell the Liepard, who nods to me before returning to her conversation with the Zoroark.

"Come on, you two. Let's head out into the woods, see what we can find." I turn my attention to Chell and Nesia, the two Pokemon beside me following me into the deeper areas of the woods as we stray from the path. As we wander past the initial line of trees and bushes, I turn to the two starter Pokemon. "Okay, so do the two of you have any idea of how to hunt for wild animals?" I ask them, getting only a sheepish glance from Chell while Nesia averts her gaze from mine.

"Not really, no. Did we need to know that?" Chell laughs nervously, while Nesia bows her head shamefully. "Sorry, Master. We can't be of use to you like this…" She frowns sadly, making me sigh as I pat their heads. "It's okay. I never taught you how to hunt, and I hardly expect you to know about that stuff, either. Now, come on and let good ol' Mister Jay teach ya how." I grin as I point a thumb at myself, Chell giggling in light of my exaggeration while Nesia smiles a little herself.

"Now, first thing's first. You're gonna have to find some evidence that a wild creature has come through here. Paw prints, bits of fur, and even poop. All of that is useful stuff." I explain to them, Nesia immediately scrunching her nose in slight disgust. "Do we really have to look for poop of all things, Master?" She groans, getting me to sigh as I look her way. "Just bear with me here, Ness. But of course, you don't have to." I shrug, making the Servine frown before she reluctantly follows.

"Tch, Master doesn't give me much choice." She huffs, making me frown in kind as I eye the Servine. "But I just gave you one!" I retort, before I see her sly and playful smile. "Oh, so this is how you're gonna play this game now." I realize as I poke the cheeky snake on the nose, Nesia giggling as she feels my finger poke her gently. "What game?" Nesia replies innocently, making me growl playfully as I bop her on the head. Chell shakes her head, a smile on her face as she walks alongside us.

"Jay, I found something!" Chell suddenly says, grabbing my attention as I divert my attention from Nesia for now. Looking down at what the Dewott is pointing to, I see that she's located some tracks in the mud. "Nice work, kiddo." I praise her, patting her on the back as I eye the imprints in the dirt. "Thanks, Mister Jay." Chell replies, a happy and content smile on her face as she receives the praise and my back pats.

"Okay, so these are hoof prints. You can tell by the specific round shape and the way that there seems to be a slice missing from the front of the circle of the print." I explain, the two starter Pokemon eyeing the tracks intently as I tell them what this means. "The only animals or Pokemon with hoof prints that I know of around here would either be wild boars or Blitzle, judging by the size of the hoof. There's no way that's a Zebstrika hoof, because the size is too small." I explain, Chell quickly asking a question as soon as I finish.

"Okay, so how do we find the boar that's making the tracks?" She asks, to which I point to the tracks themselves. "Good question. Now, from the depth and how they're spaced apart, the animal or Pokemon in question was most likely running away from something. Maybe a predator, or predators were chasing it, so it ran in fear. And from the direction the prints are headed, our catch went that way." I answer, Nesia nodding as she eyes the direction in question.

"Then let's find it. I'm getting hungry already." Chell speaks up, Nesia nodding in agreement with her friend's statement. "Same here. The sooner we can eat, the better." She adds, getting me to stand up and quickly begin to walk off in the direction that the tracks are heading in. "Then there's no time to waste. Remember to walk slowly, though. You might spook whatever we're tracking." I warn them, Chell and Nesia nodding in understanding before they slow their paces down considerably.

After a good ten minutes of walking, I quickly spot what we're looking for grazing on some exposed roots. The boar is calmly eating on the roots that it had most likely dug up by itself, while I take cover behind some bushes and lift a finger to my lips to signal for Chell and Nesia to keep quiet. They quickly comply, following suit and hiding their rather large forms behind the bushes I've picked out. However, the boar does pick up on the rustling of leaves that the Dewott and Servine make.

The animal lets off a couple of surprised noises and looks around for any signs of danger, but quickly returns to grazing on the roots after it finds none. "Alright, it hasn't caught wind of us yet. We need to catch it off guard first. That way, we can kill it without any sort of fuss." I tell them, Chell's expression quickly growing sad once she hears about what we have to do. "We have to kill it?" She asks, her tone telling me that she was hoping I wouldn't have to say yes to her question.

"Unfortunately, we do. That's where meat comes from, and we humans need neat to survive. Out here, it's either them or us. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather choose our own lives." I remind the Dewott of the harsh reality of living, to which she solemnly nods. "Right. I get it." She replies, Nesia keeping her eyes trained on our target. "What do we do, Master?" She whispers, getting me to gesture to the bushes opposite to our position.

"I'll need you to lie in wait behind those bushes over there. Once I scare the animal, it'll most likely run over there. That's when you can use your vines to restrain it, and I'll end it's life." I reply, the Servine nodding in compliance as she slithers away to take her position on the opposite side of the bushes. Once she's out of earshot, I turn to Chell. "Chell, I need you to help me scare him." I tell her, pointing to the boar.

"Why me?" She asks, to which I point to the bushes that I had told Nesia to reside in. "He'll probably run off in the wrong direction once he sees me, so I need you to scream as loudly as you can and charge at it from another direction. This way, Nesia will have a higher chance of catching it with her vines." I explain, Chell eyeing the bushes and the animal before letting out a sigh. "Sure thing, Mister Jay." She nods, taking her position further to the left of me.

"Now." I whisper to the Dewott, before I promptly charge out of the bushes to scare the boar into running. I let out a guttural scream as I charge at the animal, making it turn tail and run off in the wrong direction. However, Chell is there to make sure it doesn't stray far, as she screams and swipes at the animal with her scalchops. The boar squeals, before running right into the waiting Servine, who snatches it up with her vines and restrains it.

"Nice work, you two." I nod to the two starter Pokemon, Nesia smiling in light of my praise. However, Chell seems a little saddened due to the fact that she will be partially responsible for the death of an otherwise innocent animal. Seeing her sorrow, I pat her on the head. "Listen, kiddo. You don't have to watch if this really bothers you that much. For the record, I kinda don't wanna do this, either." I assure the Dewott, Chell giving me a saddened nod in response.

"Ness, you can look away too. I don't want you to see me commit murder, and this one's gonna be really bloody." I warn the Servine, seeing her nod and shut her eyes as she does so. Chell places her paws on her ears and turns away, not daring to look back. I whip out my knife and shank the squealing, struggling animal in the jugular. The boar stops squealing and squirming soon after, falling limp in Nesia's vines.

Looking back to Nesia, I see her shaking slightly, her eyes still not daring to open. Chell is stunned more so than her friend, tears brimming from her shut eyelids as she stands there. "Ness, you can drop 'em. I'll take it from here." I tell her, the Servine quickly loosening her grip on the animal and allowing it to fall into my grasp. Sighing, I quickly drop the boar corpse and hoist Chell and Nesia onto my shoulders instead.

"Mister Jay?" Chell gasps, Nesia making the same reaction when I wrap my hands around her waist. "Hold on, kiddo. And keep those eyes closed, alright?" I tell the Dewott, who nods in reply and grabs a hold of my hair. Nesia wraps her vines around my neck, and places her hands onto my cheek. Wincing from the hair pull, I pick the carcass back up and begin trudging towards the nearest source of running water.

I keep my ears peeled for any sounds of rushing fluids, and sure enough I hear splashing nearby. Walking towards the source of the sounds, I breach through the layer of bushes surrounding a quaint, shallow creek of sorts. Smirking in triumph, I set the dead boar into the water and begin washing it, Chell and Nesia opening their eyes to see me cleaning the animal of its own blood and dirt.

Chell yelps once she realizes she was pulling on my head, and quickly lets go of the tuft she was hanging onto. She slides down my arm, Nesia following suit as she eyes the boar with sorrow. "I helped killed it, Mister Jay." Chell sniffs, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she utters that sentence. From her tone of voice, she seems to be hopelessly trying to deny that she had any involvement in this killing. Nesia doesn't let off so much as a peep, but her downcast gaze shows me her own guilt.

I let go of the boar's carcass for now, before I reach over to hug the two first stage evolutions. "Master?" Nesia yelps, feeling me gently pull her towards my chest. "Mister Jay…" Chell sniffs before she promptly buries her head in my chest, letting off a few broken sobs as she lets her tears flow free. "Chell…" Nesia sighs as she uses her own hand to pat Chell on the back, soothing her as she holds my torso for comfort.

"I killed it, Mister Jay! It didn't do anything wrong, and I just went and killed it!" Chell sobs, Nesia tearing up as well when she sees the Dewott break down like this. "There, there. Let it all out, if it makes ya feel better." I hush her, whispering gentle nothings in her ear as she lets her sorrow go. Nesia tears up as well, sniffling as she tries to comfort Chell alongside me.

"I felt bad about helping kill it too, Chell…" The Servine speaks up, pressing her head against hers as lets a tear fall off her snout. I hold Nesia just a little tighter in response, petting her back gently as well. "It's okay, Ness. You can cry too. I'll be there for you." I hush her, which finally gets her to let loose her own waterworks and allowing some of her own tearful sobbing to break past her calm demeanor.

I don't say much after that, simply rocking the two starters gently in my arms and mumbling words of comfort for them to hear. Soon enough, the sobs turn into sniffs and they finally release my chest lock and eyes with me. "Feeling better?" I ask them, both starters nodding in reply. "Much better, Mister Jay." Chell smiles past her tears, while Nesia simply smiles in response. Nevertheless, smiles adorn their faces.

"That's good. It's always good to tell others how you feel, 'cause one person or Pokemon doesn't have to bear any load alone." I smile at them, getting them to smile in kind as I wipe their tears away. "Master…" Nesia smiles gratefully as I gently use my thumb to wipe away the tears that line her cheeks and eyes. Chell also gives me a grin as she receives the kind gesture, making me chuckle at her adorable demeanor.

"Remember to hold onto that sadness you felt when you felt like you killed that boar, okay? That'll be a very important reminder of how important life is, no matter how small or bad it may be." I tell them, Chell and Nesia both giving me a noise of acknowledgement in reply. "I will, Mister Jay!" Chell nods as she hears me out, Nesia also nodding to show her understanding. "I will, Master." She speaks up, getting me to smirk as I pat her head once more.

"Good. Now, I'll finish up here and then we can head back to camp. In the meantime, you two can help me find some berries around here. Let's not keep the rest of the girls waiting, shall we?" I suggest, Chell and Nesia quickly obeying my command and running off into the brush to find some delectable, juicy treats. Once they're gone, I quickly cut up the animal, being careful to not slice into the organs.

Once I've done so, the rest of the animal is easy to cut up, my knife and small hacksaw doing the job quite nicely. "Alright. Short ribs, hams, shoulders, tenderloins and fillet. All present, and accounted for." I mumble to myself as I pack away the meat and tools, readying the food for the haul back to the campsite. Just as I put away the meat, I hear the rustling of bushes behind me. I hold my knife close to me in response, just in case it's not Chell or Nesia.

Fortunately, I sigh in relief as I spot a familiar Dewott and Servine exit the bushes, the Servine holding a leaf filled to the brim with berries with her vines. "Mister Jay, look!" The Dewott waves to me, getting me to wave back as I sling my backpack over my shoulders and walk over to greet them. "Heya, you two. I see foraging went well, then?" I grin, picking up a Cheri Berry from the pile and eyeing it's ripe, red color.

"Master, no stealing." Nesia lectures me, her gaze warning me and making me sigh as I put the delectable treat back where I had plucked it up from. "Alright, fine. Let me hold that for ya, and we can get moving." I offer, the Servine quickly shaking her head as she holds it closer to her form. "No. You'll eat some if you do that." She accuses, making me hold a hand to my chest in mock offense.

"Dang, how did you know!? My plan was full proof!" I gasp, Chell giggling as she sees me goof off like the proud goofball I am. "You're so silly, Mister Jay." Chell shakes her head, Nesia nodding in agreement to her friend's statement. "I agree. He's so laid back." She sighs, making me chuckle. "And who said that was a bad thing? Ness, can you pick up my scent and lead us back?" I ask the Servine, who shakes her head.

"No. But I see footprints that look like your shoes." She speaks up matter-of-factly as she point to some prints of my shoes in the mud, making me sigh as I catch the sarcastic remark. "Okay, I get it. I'm blind." I sigh, shaking my head as Chell eyes the prints Nesia had referred to. "They kinda do look like Jay's shoe prints. Wait, they are Jay's shoe prints!" Chell exclaims, getting me to bop the gullible Dewott on the head.

"Ness meant that sarcastically, ya goober." I smirk wryly in response to her observation, making the Dewott giggle as she lightly paws at my hand. "Stop that, Mister Jay!" She huffs playfully, getting me to smile at her. "God you're so damn cute, ya know that?" I shake my head and sigh, Chell blushing a shade of pink as she hears me compliment her. "Really?" She asks me timidly, making me chuckle in reply.

"I told you before, didn't I? I meant it before, and I mean it now." I tell her honestly, which simply gets her to blush harder as she averts her gaze from mine. "You're making me so happy, Mister Jay…" Chell giggles as she smiles happily, Nesia pouting as she looks to her blushing friend before she eyes me. "Master never told me that I was cute…" She huffs indignantly, which gets me to chuckle.

"Oh, really? If so, then I'll tell you now. You are one of the cutest girls, Pokemon or human, that I've ever had the chance of meeting. You're really freaking cute in your own way, especially when you smile." I remind her of how cute her smile is to me, making her mood shift quite quickly to one of happiness as she blushes as well. "Can I be this happy, Master? Is it possible for me to be this happy?" Nesia giggles dreamily, blushing hard enough for the red to overtake the green of her scales.

Seeing the two so flustered once I remind them of their inherent ability to be cute, I sigh as I poke their cheeks with a finger. "Come on, you two. Let's head back so we can get eating. You are hungry, right?" I ask them, right on cue for their own stomachs to let off resounding growls of agreement. "See? Your stomachs agree with me, and you two should too." I add, Chell laughing as she nods to show her own agreement. Nesia giggles as well, as we soon arrive closer to our campsite.

"Ladies' first." I grin cheekily as I push apart the bushes leading back to the site, Chell giggling as she walks through to the other side. "Master's such a showoff." Nesia shakes her head, before walking through herself. I walk in after them to see the rest of the Pokemon chatting amongst themselves, as I set my stuff down and Nesia puts the leaf filled with berries down.

"Hey there, Jay!" Cleo greets me, Dani waving a leaf in my direction in greeting. "Hello, Jay. Welcome back." Katrina purrs, while Leah and Safia simply spare me a nod. "Hello, everyone. I'll be in charge of making dinner tonight, so I hope you all enjoy what I cook up." I grin, setting down my backpack and taking out some cooking tools. A pot, a wire grid and some dried herbs all come out as I prepare to cook.

"Hello, Jay. It's nice to see you back so soon." Nova speaks up, grabbing a hold of my arm with her own appendages. "Nice to see you too, Nova. Do me a favor and get a fire going, please." I ask the Volcarona as I gesture to the fire pit, Nova nodding as she uses her wings to spread some embers onto the twigs and set them ablaze. "What's cooking supposed to mean?" Safia asks, Leah eyeing the tools and herbs with interest.

"It's probably just some kind of food, nothing new." The Sewaddle scoffs, making Dani shake her head. "You have no idea how wrong you are." She chuckles, getting some confused looks while I crack my knuckles. "The heat is on!" I yell, the fire coming to life before me.


	64. Chapter 64

Chapter 64

[Jay]

The sun has fully set by now, the land now barely visible to anyone without a source of light. Which I have, luckily enough. Fire's warm and bright, which makes it the perfect candidate for some late night activities. For now, it's being put to good use as I roast some ham over the fire and get the boar fat to slowly dribble out of the meat and into the flames. The meat is crisping up too, which makes for great taste.

With a scene like this, I'd be heavily focused on the task at hand under normal circumstances. My childhood has taught me not to waste food, after all. However, this is not the case. Instead, I'm not even paying much attention to the roasting meat, instead eyeing something else near the flames with pride and joy. Why? Well, if you had a bunch of admirers of your cooking, wouldn't you be happy? I know I am.

"God, this is so good!" Safia moans with delight as she bites into another piece of rib, chewing quickly before sucking on the bone to ensure she didn't miss any scraps of meat behind. Leah is chewing slowly as she watches her friend go to town, however she's eating with a smile on her face before she turns to me. "This meat is delicious, Jay. Thank you." She thanks me, to which I nod in reply.

"I aim to please." I tell her as I bow, getting her to giggle at my gesture as she returns to eating her meal. "This is good! This is really good!" The Sewaddle squeals, nibbling on her share of food like no tomorrow. "Good's putting it lightly! This tastes too good to be true!" The Venipede adds, eating her ribs with blinding, frightening speed. Chell and Nesia smile knowingly next to me when they hear her, knowing full well the extent of my cooking skills as they chomp and chew through their meals.

"I had no idea food could taste this good…" Nova weeps, getting all emotional as she bites into her slice of meat. Tears are seriously leaking down her face as she eats, making me chuckle as I see her reaction. "I have no idea how that stuff tastes, but this tastes great! Thanks, Jay!" Dani thanks me as she eats the meal I've made for her and Lily which consists of lightly roasted berries and fruits. Alita is digging in, a mix of the two foods on her platter as she pecks at the meat.

"Mmm hmm! It's not as sweet, but it still tastes so good!" Lily nods, biting into her own berries as Cleo munches at hers. "Well, Ah'll be. Never thought burnin' somethin' coulda tasted so delightful!" The Mareep adds as she licks her lips of all the berry juices, before opening her maw to snap at another one. "No problem, Dani. Just try not to choke, alright?" I warn the Cottonee jokingly, seeing her eat like a pig.

"How's that ham looking, Jay?" Safia asks me, already having downed her portion and is now staring at the leg of boar with hunger. "Almost there, Safia. Just gotta add a few things here and there…" I reply, trailing off as I brush some honey over the pork in order to sweeten it up. "Hurry up, then! I'm really hungry over here!" Alita ushers me, getting me to roll my eyes as I point to the food roasting over the flames.

"Perfection takes time, ya know. Besides, aren't you busy pigging out over your own food right now?" I joke as I turn the slab of meat over, the Unfezant quickly catching onto what I was implying. "God damn it, you idiot! Stop ruining this for me with your dumb jokes!" She fumes when she hears the pun, Nesia simply rolling her eyes as I chuckle. Chell giggles in the middle of chewing, her cheeks puffed with food.

"Ugh, seriously? Not now! I'm eating, for fuck's sake!" The Sewaddle groans, promptly shooting a string of silk at my face. I quickly duck out of the way of the speed reducing move, the String Shot landing harmlessly onto the ground a little ways away from me. "Heh, don't let that joke string you up like that. It's all in good fun."I snicker as I make the pun, the Venipede sighing as she watches her friend try to get her silk to make full physical contact with my face.

"Always with the puns, huh Jay?" She speaks up, making me grin. "You know me. Jokes are my game." I reply, before dodging another silky string aimed for my face. "You're such a dumbass." She giggles while Cleo snorts halfway into swallowing, which makes her accidentally choke on the berry she was chewing up. She quickly coughs up the berry she was about to digest, before quickly swallowing it anew.

"You have to agree, though. This is simply divine." Katrina comments, her tail lazily swishing behind her as she eats her food slowly. Nesia agrees with the feline, offering her a curt nod in response before she continues to eat. "Alright, everyone! Ham's done!" I call, Safia quickly rushing over to slice off a piece of the ham with her claws. She then pops the little morsel in her mouth, before her eyes widen in shock.

"Jay, I think I didn't taste it well enough. Mind if I get some extra meat, just to be sure?" The Zoroark asks me with a sly grin, making me roll my eyes. "Yes, I do mind. Just wait, and I'll get you your portion soon enough." I reply, quickly catching onto her ploy. Pouting, the Zoroark has no choice but to sit her furry butt back down onto the soft grassy ground next to Leah.

"Don't be so impatient, sister. Jay wouldn't leave you out." Leah assures her friend, who sighs in reply. "But I want the meat now! It smells so goooood, Leah…" Safia whines, before a smirk etches itself onto her face anew. "But I do have a plan to get him to favor me." She snickers, rubbing her paws together as she concocts her devious desires and allows them to manifest into a wicked plot of her own.

"Yeah, no. That idiot's not one to play favorites, and he's never let any of us eat first." Alita reminds the Zoroark, who eyes the Unfezant with a confident gaze. "But, he's never had to deal with me before. I have the perfect plan." She cackles, making me sigh. "I can hear you. You do know that, right?" I speak up, to which Safia scoffs. "Yeah, I know you can. I'm giving you fair warning, that's all." She replies, while Lily eyes the shape shifter with confusion.

"What's your plan?" She asks, while Dani munches on her share of the berries. "Dunno, but this oughta be good." The Cottonne giggles, as Katrina eyes the Zoroark with interest. "Maybe, if the rumors about Zoroark are true." The Sewaddle giggles. "Ah dunno, Safia. This don't seem like that good of an idea ta me." Cleo warns, eyeing me with some level of concern. "Eh, he'll be fine. This plan doesn't involve hurting him." Safia waves off the worries of the Flaafy, getting her to sigh.

"Well, if you've got a plan, I'm all ears." Alita sighs, watching the Zoroark with some hints of interest. The Venipede hasn't lost interest in the plan, watching Safia's movements. "Safia, I honestly don't think this will work." Leah warns the shape shifting lupine, who rolls her eyes in response. "Ugh, just wait and see Leah! He'll have to hand me more ham after this!" She crows confidently, before I roll my eyes and look away to return to cutting up and plating the meat with my knife.

"Time to get moving. The plan is a go!" Safia cackles darkly, stepping closer and closer to me. I can tell due to the soft crinkling of grass behind me, giving away her position. "I wonder what she has in mind." Nova questions aloud, Chell shrugging nonchalantly as she licks one of the bones clean. "I dunno, Nova. We'll see." The Dewott replies, Nesia now focused on what the Zoroark has planned as she inches closer to me.

"What the? What's that supposed to do?" Alita asks all of a sudden, while most of the team share the same confusion the Unfezant has. "What kind of creature is that?" Lily asks, equally as stumped as most of the team is. Judging by their reactions, I'd say Safia had already transformed in to something to help her with her plan. However, a select few Pokemon have already caught on to what Safia had in store.

"O-oh my." Nova gasps, her voice carrying hints of fear to it as she eyes Safia's new form for herself. Meanwhile, Katrina simply hisses angrily at the transformed Zoroark. "Now that is simply unfair." She pouts jealously, while Leah simply sighs. "That is evil, even for you Safia." She comments, while I see Nesia blushing darkly beside me. "So big and round…" She gulps, her gaze amplifying the sheer envy she was giving off.

"They're so big! That's not fair at all!" Chell huffs as she crosses her arms, turning to look away from Safia's illusion. "What's big?" I ask, before I feel two soft, squishy mounds press into my back. The two mounds are soft, but not too much so. They also have two nubs atop them, which I can sort of feel through my clothes. As I try to understand what the Zoroark is planning, she drapes her arms over my shoulders.

The arms have fine fingers instead of the three claws she was sporting originally, and her arms are furless. On top of that, they feel smooth against my neck and take on the color of human skin. Wait a sec. Human skin!? If she turned into a human, then that means the mounds on my back are... Safia, you cheeky bitch. As if right on cue, the Zoroark, now a naked redhead human girl, takes my hands and presses them to her now quite hefty jugs, making me blush heavily from their softness.

"Safia, what's all this?" I gulp, Safia grinning as she moves my hands as they're stuck to her breasts, as she lets out a husky moan. "You sure you can't give me any more, even if I… pay you extra for it?" She accentuates the last few words, as she makes me hold her boobs and squeezes the soft, squishy pillows for extra emphasis. She them slowly moves over to grind her assets along my arm, making me suck in a deep breath as I feel an erection pitching a tent in my pants.

Seeing my tool at full mast, Safia giggles as she rubs a finger along my length. "Ooh, my. Already excited, big boy? I'll help you take care of that…" She whispers into my ear as she licks her lips, making me shudder and groan. "Hmph, Master's going to fuck a girl just because she wants to sleep with him. What a pervert." Nesia huffs as she sees the goings on behind her, Chell huffing as she looks away from me as well.

"I knew it! You are a pervert!" Alita yells, making the others blush as Safia tries her best to seduce me. "No, I'm not! What would you do if you had a hot guy Unfezant waiting to bone you senseless?" I sigh, rolling my eyes at the accusation. Finally picking up the pieces of logical thinking the Zoroark had shattered, I push her away. "No means no. Now sit back down." I grunt, poking her arm and making her yelp in pain. "Hey! That's still healing, you know!" She hisses, making me shrug as she clutches her wounded limb.

"I'm not the one who tried to use tricks to get food just now." I remind Safia, who sighs before sitting back down. "Ugh, fine." She resigns in defeat, before I turn to Nesia and Chell. "I'm sorry for making you think that I was going to sleep with her, okay? I'd never do that with someone I just met, and you two know that." I apologize to the two Starter Pokemon, Nesia sounding off a 'hmph' in response as she sticks her nose up in defiance.

"I don't believe you either, Jay. You looked really ready to mate with her just now…" Chell huffs as she looks away with her arms crossed, like the way an angry mother would berate her child. "Alright, alright! I'm sorry, okay? I promise that won't happen again!" I apologize to the two once more, getting both of them to tilt their heads slightly to the left to glare at me out of the corner of their eyes.

After a minute of me withering under their combined glares, they finally relent and turn to fully look my way. "Well, if you say so." Nesia sighs reluctantly, while Chell simply nods as she smiles at me. "You sound honest enough, so I'll let you off the hook." She adds, making me nod thankfully in kind. "Thanks, you two. And while you two were being all grumpy, your meat was getting cold." I tell them, holding out two plates now piled with food which they quickly accept from my hands.

"Okay, that was weird." Alita shakes her head and sighs. Luckily for me, the rest of the team only saw my back during that exchange, and soon quickly return to their meals. "Ah'll say. The heck were ya thinking back there, Safia?" Cleo shakes her head as she questions the motive behind the Zoroark's actions, while I continue to carve and hand out slices of meat to the other meat eating Pokemon.

"Well, I was hoping that he was a pervert. That way, the plan would have worked." Safia grins cheekily, making Lily tilt her head in confusion. "What's a pervert?" She asks, getting me to sock the Zoroark in the back of her head. "Stop that, Safia. Children are listening, ya know." I scold her, making her huff. "Ugh, fine. You're no fun at all." She rolls her eyes, making Katrina giggle as I hand her some ham.

"I have a fairly good idea of what you mean, Safia." She replies, before taking a bite out of the sweetened flesh. "For the record, spoiling your theft isn't being not fun." I retort, making the Liepard smile as she hears me say that. Meanwhile, I get up from my sitting spot and walk over to Nova and the other Bug Types, handing each of them a sizeable platter of meat each.

"Thanks, Jay." The Venipede nods in gratitude for the food as I place the plate in front of her, while the Sewaddle idly nods my way. "Yeah, thanks for the food." She adds, before she quickly begins to chow down. Nova however, is largely frozen and unresponsive as I hand her the food, her look one of fear. "Uh, Nova? Everything okay in there? Earth to Nova?" I ask the Volcarona, which makes her snap out of it.

"Yes? What is it, Jay?" She asks as she snaps out of her trance, which gets me to look at her with a concerned expression. "You okay, Nova. You looked scared for a second." I tell her, having no idea what could be plaguing her thoughts. However, the large Fire Moth simply shakes her head as she smiles. "It's nothing, Jay. I was simply spacing out, that's all." She replies, although her gaze quickly averts itself from mine.

"Well, if you wanna talk about it, you know where to find me." I tell her, to which Nova nods before she begins to nibble at her food. She soon begins to tear up anew, sniffling as she chews and swallows. "Woah, Nova! Something wrong?" I quickly ask her, worried for her sudden sorrow. However, she quickly shakes her head and finishes her bite to look my way with tearful eyes.

"It tastes so good…!" She sniffs in delight, before eating another bite of the ham. In light of her reaction, I chuckle. "I appreciate the compliment, and there's a lot more ham where that came from. So take your time, and I'll make sure you get your fill of meat." I assure her, Nova nodding as she chomps and chews like no tomorrow. "This tastes so much better than I thought it would!" The Venipede gasps in delight, before she tears another chunk out of the ham on her plate.

"You're right there. Damn, he knows how to make food!" The Sewaddle adds, munching on hers with an equal amount of ferocity. "This tastes much better than I initially thought it would." Katrina comments, as she swallows a bite she had torn off the meat. "Seriously, how do you makes things taste this good!?" Alita looks at me incredulously, pecking at her ham slices as I shrug.

"Eh. Lots of practice. When you have to look after your sister, you learn lots of things." I reply, getting the attention of Leah as she listens in. "Well, you did mention you had to fend for yourself as a child." She nods, remembering the outburst of rage I had unleashed upon the Ditto who had decided to accuse me of being selfish. "Oh, yeah! Although, fending for yourself doesn't seem all that bad. I used to do that all the time, before I met Leah." Safia speaks up, making me chuckle as she says that.

"Of course you would say that. But, consider this. You can't use any Pokemon moves for anything, not even to save your own life. Once you do, you'll be hunted by the rest of the world for being abnormal and not like the others." I reply, which quickly gets Safia to avert her gaze, which would indicate that she realizes she had said something wrong. "Well, if you put it that way…" She sighs, looking a mite guilty.

"I still don't get it, though. Why couldn't you have hunted for food yourself?" The Venipede asks, Lily nodding as she eats her share. "Forests have lots of berries in them, and you already know how to hunt. What was so tough then?" Dani questions, making me smirk as I gesture to the ham. "Well, I had to learn. And that meant lots of trial and error. I had lots of error in the beginning, so we had to beg for our meals back then." I explain, reminiscing of my childhood on the streets.

"And add in the fact that humans weren't the kindest of creatures around, you've got a recipe for the worst life anyone could ask for. I needed the money to get medicine for my sister, who was constantly getting sick all the time, and I only got at most eight dollars a day. Medicine cost about five hundred dollars a portion, and I was scraping by with two." I chuckle sadly, as Lily looks to me with a sense of pity.

"I had no idea, Sir…" She sniffs, already looking sadder as she gets a general idea of the life of poverty I lead. "That's… that's really rough." Alita adds, causing no shortage of empathy with the rest of the team. "Ah knew prices in them big cities was bad, but not this bad…" Cleo sighs, making me smile as I pat the Flaafy on the head. The Venipede looked sad for even asking, so I decide to lighten the mood.

"But, things got better in the end. I got noticed by a professor, and she offered me a job that paid well. So, I got lucky enough to go on this adventure, and meet all of you." I grin, seeing Cleo and Lily's faces light up. "Besides, the past isn't important. What matters is the here and now. And with all of you here, I'd say I've gotten more than my share of good luck." I smile at everyone, as they all smile in kind. The Venipede, however, seems a little unwilling to look my way.

"You don't have to tell me that, idiot. Of course you're lucky, having someone like me to help!" Alita speaks up, getting me to grin her way. "I know I am. And I wouldn't have it any other way." I reply, patting the Unfezant on the head and making her blush. "Yeah, yeah. Glad to see you care." She mutters, averting her gaze from mine. "To be honest, I think we're pretty lucky to have met you too." Chell adds, hugging my leg as Nesia nods to affirm the Dewott's words.

"I think so too. I like travelling with you instead." The Servine says, hugging me with her own little arms. "Ah agree. No regrets here, that's fer sure!" Cleo chuckles, as Katrina smiles happily. "I concur. Meeting you was quite the stroke of luck." She nods, remembering how I had helped her out back then. "I don't regret anything either, Sir." Lily smiles happily as she addresses me, Dani nodding in agreement.

"Well, I can't say you're wrong there!" She chuckles, as Nova and Leah both smile at me in light of what the rest of the group had said. "Eh, you're not that bad, I guess." Safia comments, making me sigh as the Zoroark chomps through another slice of meat from her plate. "And you're not exactly the most pleasant of Pokemon to deal with, ya know." I remind her, to which she looks at me with a fake look of innocence.

"What do you mean by that? I haven't done anything too drastic." She giggles, as Leah looks to me in apology. "Expect a lot more of what just happened between the two of you from now on, Jay." Was all she could say to warn me, getting me to sigh in exasperation. "Right, thanks for the warning. Don't worry, getting to hang with someone as nice as you is more than worth it." I reply, as I bite into my own food.

"Thank you, Jay. But I'm not sure if I'm really that nice…" Leah shyly speaks her mind as she tries to wave off my comment, her face turning a slight shade of red as she says so. "Heh, you just don't think so. Everyone else can see it, and Safia isn't an exception." I remind her of her closest friend, who nods in agreement when she hears what I have to say about the Lucario.

"He's right, sis. You're real nice, even to Pokemon like me! Any other Lucario would've kicked my ass the first time we met." She adds, Leah putting her face in her paws in embarrassment as she receives the praise. "Give me more food!" I suddenly hear and feel a String Shot launched into my back, making me sigh as I pull off the silky substance and hand the Sewaddle another plateful of meat.

"There. Ya happy now?" I ask the Bug Type, who quickly chows down, ignoring my question entirely. The Venipede giggles at her friend, before answering for her. "Yeah, she's happy alright. Never seen her eat this fast, ever!" She replies, making me chuckle as she says so." Heh, glad I made her day. You wanna refill too? Your plate's empty." I suggest, to which she nods as she nudges her plate towards me.

"Oh, yes please!" She quickly says, making me laugh as I cut off some more ham and hand it to her. "Here ya go." I nod, before I hear Lily yawning as she blinks her eyes a little sluggishly. "I'm feeling tired, Sir…" She yawns, Chell rubbing her eyes and seeming a little tired herself. Even Nesia seems to be a little tired, as her movements slow and she finds it harder to keep her eyes open.

"Lily's got a point. Let's finish up here and get some shut eye, everyone. Can't go meeting Scolipede while we can barely keep our eyes open, eh?" I suggest, Cleo nodding as she lets off a yawn. "Ah can agree ta that. Let's hit the hay." The Flaafy adds, Katrina nodding tiredly as she lies onto the grass. "I can agree. We've had quite the long day." She reminds us all, to which everyone seems to more or less agree.

"Right, then. But someone's gotta keep first watch, to make sure we don't get attacked while we sleep." I speak up, Leah immediately grabbing my attention with a paw on my back. "I can keep first watch, Jay. I'm not really that tired, anyways." She assures me, getting me to nod in reply. "Well, if you say so." I reply, Safia grinning at the Lucario as she puts her hands to her hips.

"I can take over for you later, Leah! Just make sure to shake me awake, though." She suggests to her friend, who sighs when she hears the Zoroark say that. "You never wake up before seven in the morning, Safia." She informs her friend, who crosses her arms as she hears Leah say that. "That's not totally true! I wake up at Six sometimes!" She huffs indignantly, making me chuckle as I pat Safia on her shoulder.

"You can sleep off tonight, then. I can take over for you, if you want." I offer to Safia, who nods thankfully as quickly as she hears what I have to say. "Yeah, sure! Thanks for filling in for me!" She replies, before taking a spot on the soft grass of the site and lying down. Shaking my head in light of her taking the opportunity with haste, I lie down and prepare to take my own nap as well.

"Yeah, yeah. Thank me tomorrow, when we get training." I remind her of her end of the bargain with Leah, to which she begrudgingly nods. "Right, that." She sighs and mumbles, before lying on her side and closing her eyes. "Well, don't leave me outta some nap time!" Dani smirks, before she huddles up with Lily and closes her eyes. Alita nods, before she too closes her eyes, followed by Nova and Katrina.

I take out my sleeping bag and unfurl it, before I climb in and rest my head against the pillow. "So, why do you get the nice place to sleep, huh? What was all that stuff about you being on equal footing with your Pokemon?" The Sewaddle huffs, looking at my bag of warmth with envy as she accuses me of being a hypocrite. "Well, think of it like this. I'm weaker than you, so I need to protect myself." I reply, getting a look of slight satisfaction from the Bug Type as the Venipede joins us.

"Wow, this is pretty soft. I can't believe a dumbass like you actually gets good stuff like this." The Venipede says, making me roll my eyes. "Hah, hah. I can take care of myself too, ya know. Besides, Safia destroys my pride enough. Don't need you adding to that." I shoot back as the Venipede smirks cheekily in return. "Pride? What do mean by your pride? I thought you didn't have any to begin with." She innocently says, making me huff playfully.

"God, I was right when I thought you would bug me." I sigh as I shake my head, the Venipede smiling when she hears the joke. "And you're such a dumbass, Jay." She replies, while the Sewaddle smacks me over the head. "God, your jokes suck!" She groans as admires the handiwork of the human race, before she eyes me with a look of want. "Is it okay if I…" She trails off, eyeing the top of the sleeping bag.

"Sure, why not. If you want, sleep on top of the bag. I won't mind." I nod to both Bugs, getting her to nod as she crawls onto the bag. "Thanks, Jay." The Venipede thanks me, before she curls up and begins to rest. "Mister Jay, can we join too?" Chell suddenly speaks beside me, making me turn to my side to see her and Nesia eyeing me with a pleading look. Damn it, she looks so cute. There is no way humanly possible, that I can resist that look they're sending me.

"Yeah, sure. The more, the merrier. Come on in, there's plenty of room." I smirk, unzipping the bag a little and allowing the two starters to climb on in. "Yay! Thanks, Mister Jay!" Chell cheers, as she and Nesia quickly take the chance and slip into the sleeping bag with me. Chell cuddles up to my left side, while Nesia settles for my right. "So warm and comfy in here…" Nesia sighs, nuzzling her head into my neck.

"It feels so nice to sleep with you, Jay." Chell smiles, making me blush as I cough into my hand. "Chell, please don't phrase it like that. The way you say it, it's like I'm… doing the deed with you." I tell her, getting her to blush as well. "Ah! Sorry, Mister Jay!" The Dewott is quick to apologize, as Nesia simply giggles at her flustered friend. "It's okay, Chell. Now you know what not to say." The Servine speaks up, making me chuckle as I hug the both of them from the confines of the sleeping bag.

"And the both of you should quit yapping and get some sleep. We're training tomorrow, and you being tired doesn't help." I remind them, as Chell and Nesia snuggle my hands with no shortage of joy. "Yes, Master." Nesia nods as she simply holds my index finger with her hands, while Chell puts her furry arms over my own. "Sure thing, Jay. We'll get lots of sleep and work really hard, just you wait and see!" Chell cheers, getting me to grin as I use my cheek to nuzzle her head.

"I'm sure I'll get to see that tomorrow. Goodnight, everyone." I nod to the Pokemon around me, to which everyone sounds off relative words of similar meaning before they nod off to sleep. "Sleep tight, Mister Jay." Chell sighs contentedly, Nesia snuggling my chest. "Yes, Master. Goodnight." She smiles warmly, before sleep quickly takes all of us over, preparing us for a new day. However, I fail to realize the presence of a certain pink mist seeping from my Pokedex…

I wake up with a start and get up, my eyes meeting the strange scenery of a pinkish mist. "Strange. I do not recall myself taking any drugs before I hit the sack." I muse, eyeing the strange place with interest. Just pink mist everywhere, which is only accompanied by a boring white floor. "Geez, this place could use some serious color." I groan, before I use my hand to swipe away the mist nearest to me. For some reason, this mist looks really familiar…

"Hello? Anyone there? Hello?" I call out into the endless expanse of pink, getting no reply for my effort. "Well, guess I'm stuck here for now." I sigh, sitting down on the ground. "Jay? Is that you?" I suddenly hear a feline's voice from the left of me, making me yelp in shock. "Yeah, it's me? You here too, Kat?" I ask the Liepard, who quickly sprints into view soon after.

"Heya. Nice to see you here, miss." I grin jokingly, making Katrina giggle as she hears me say that. "And it is a pleasure to see you too, Sir." She replies, to which I nod as I get up. "Do you have any idea how you got here? I can't remember anything." I ask her, to which she shakes her head. "I'm afraid not. I fell asleep, and awoke here soon after." She informs me, making me sigh as I look around.

"Well, come on. Let's try and find a way outta here, shall we?" I suggest, holding out my hand to the feline, who nods to affirm her agreement. "It does seem to be the most logical course of action. Let us be off." She adds, reaching out her paw to touch mine. Once we touch appendages however, a bright light envelops and blinds us momentarily, before whisking us away from the monotonous scenery of endless pink and into a forest clearing.

"Huh. I had no idea we could do that." I speak aloud in confusion, holding a hand to my chin as I think. Meanwhile, Katrina blinks away the spots in her vision, before she too sees where we are. "It is rather strange that we were transported here of all places." She comments, to which I nod in agreement. However, we are suddenly alerted to the presence of another being in our immediate vicinity, as something runs out of the bushes and latches onto me.

"Jay!" Katrina shouts in concern, before something about the figure's appearance makes her stop dead in her tracks. "Got off of me!" I growl, flipping the mysterious figure off my back and in front of me. "Now, what the hell was that… for…" I yell, but stop mid sentence as I see something very familiar staring back at me. She's rocking quite the ample butt, with two B-cup breasts swaying before me. She is clad in purple fur and a yellow furred front, as she sways her scythe like tail behind herself.

Her cat-like head and pink facial fur really surprises me, as well as her whiskers and purple pointed ears. "Hello, Jay. Like what you see?" The woman purrs, her voice sounding like Katrina's but oddly distorted. However, her appearance basically resembles that of a humanoid Liepard. "What." Is all I can mutter as she says that. Taking out my Pokedex, I scan the creature, but I am only met with an error screen.

"Error, error. Unable to scan. Typing: Dark." The Device informs me, making me raise an eyebrow. "That's not a Pokemon?" I raise an eyebrow, wondering just how much weirder this could get.

 **Author's note: So, finally got around to using that Dream Mist. I had this planned, but I never really thought about it until I was informed of it by a very specific person. Thanks, man. Anyways, I decided to add a list of all present team members down here after every chapter. Here's the current list!**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **That's all for now, folks! Stay tuned, and have a good day, night, and everything in between.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Roccer**


	65. Chapter 65

Chapter 65

[Jay]

"Who the hell are you?" I ask the shockingly familiar looking-person? Pokemon?-in front of us, who winks seductively at me in reply. "Do you not already know me, Jay? I am Katrina, except I am all that she is not." The figure purrs, while Katrina looks on in shock and envy. "Okay, I get that much. Why are you here, then? Where in the world even are we?" I ask her, getting her to giggle as she gestures to the forest.

"Is it not obvious? You have never left the place you slept in, Jay." She replies, making me think back to when I had seen the pink mist surrounding me. "Wait, so this is because of the Dream Mist?" I ask the humanoid Pokemon, who nods as she places a hand to my chest. "You catch on quickly. You see, I am merely a figment of what Katrina wants and desires to be. As you can see, I have some very valuable assets." She giggles, squeezing her boobs together and making me blush.

"Uh, y-yeah. I can see that for myself." I stutter and gulp, Katrina looking quite saddened by the fact that an imposter of hers with breasts had managed to turn me on like that. "Well, that isn't what's important here. What is important is why you're here." I put aside the matter of her assets for now, getting her to smile. "Now, as for why I'm here. I am simply here to dispose of the inferior Liepard you have beside you." She adds, to which I stare at her in confusion.

"Dispose of her? Why? You're still Kat, right?" I ask her, as the Liepard next to me glares daggers at the humanoid version of herself. "You will leave us. Now." She hisses threateningly, her tone laced with all the venom of a King Cobra. However, this just gets the opposition to giggle as she hears what my Liepard has to say. "I pray that you are not being serious. I am better in every aspect, and you know it." She taunts Katrina, the Liepard quickly lashing out with a Scratch attack. I try to stop her with my magic, but nothing happens. "Well, that's a thing." I grumble, as I begin to think.

The humanoid Liepard yelps as she quickly jumps away from the range of the swipe, retaliating with a Dark Pulse of her own. "I'm afraid defeating me will be impossible for you!" The humanoid laughs as Katrina dodges the blast of dark energy, leaving me stunned by what the other Katrina had said. Since this is a dream, and the opposing Katrina seems to be so similar yet so different from the playfully cheeky Liepard I know and love, does this mean she sees herself as inferior to a human girl? To say that this revelation leaves me shocked would be an understatement…

"I will defeat you! I love Jay, and I will not let you take him away from me!" Katrina growls angrily, rushing forth to deliver a quick Sucker Punch to deal some damage. However, the other Katrina just takes the hit, stumbling back by a few feet before shaking her head. "Silly Liepard! You are of the Dark Typing, and so am I! Dark Type attacks do half as much damage!" She crows, firing a Shadow Ball at Katrina. Meanwhile I'm torn between who to protect, as they seem to be the same Pokemon.

"It matters not! I will still prevail!" Katrina hisses, getting me to watch as they both battle it out for my affections. I know fighting between girls is referred to as a catfight, but this is just ridiculous. Katrina quickly breaks the attack and dissipates the ball of Ghostly energy with her Dark Pulse, but the other Katrina has already charged forth with a glowing right leg to deliver a swift Low Kick to the underside of the Liepard. Wait, was that a fighting Type move!? That's so unfair!

"Gah…!" Katrina gasps as she gets the wind knocked out of her, rolling to a stop on the forest floor away from the humanoid. "Hah! You naïve little Pokemon! I can also use Fighting Type moves, which are twice as effective against a Pokemon of the Dark Typing!" She giggles gleefully, before she runs over to deliver another Low Kick. Katrina quickly gets up to avoid the attacking move just in time, before a quick Cross Chop sends her reeling in pain.

As the Liepard stumbles in a daze due to the attacks all hitting their mark, the other Katrina quickly takes advantage of the state of her foe. Rushing up to her with a glowing lower leg, she kicks Katrina in the stomach with her Low Kick once more. Katrina coughs up some saliva this time, the clear liquid dribbling out of her mouth as she struggles to stand from the recent ass kicking. Damn it, I have no magic! What the hell am I supposed to do about this!?

"Give up now, and spare yourself the shame. Jay deserves me, not some pathetic fighter without a desirable body." The humanoid sneers at the Liepard's beaten form, as Katrina glares at her foe with hate and defiance. "No, he doesn't. He loves me, not you!" She growls, making the other Katrina laugh with mirth. "You are so deluded! Jay doesn't love you, he only loves your cunt because it takes all of his cum! What do you have to offer him, anyways?" The humanoid Liepard smirks, slapping Katrina.

"That isn't true! Jay loves me! He said so…" Katrina argues, however her voice is already beginning to falter. "Jay simply decided to love you because you were a cum loving whore willing to submit to his cock, not because you had the body he so craved! You are undeserving of his affection, and you know it!" The humanoid Liepard cackles, stepping on the Pokemon Liepard's head with a victorious smirk. Shit, I need to do something fast! But what the hell am I supposed to do!?

"I… I…" Karina tries to retort, but it sounds like she's trying to convince herself at this point. "Maybe she's right. Maybe Jay will be happier with her." whispers sadly, tears running down her cheeks as her body grows slack with acceptance. Katrina, that isn't true! Don't believe that! "That's more like it. Don't worry, you won't be missed." The humanoid Katrina smirks as she lifts her leg up, making it glow a bright red as she prepares to smash Katrina's head in. "How about no?" I butt in, tackling her away from my Liepard and saving her life.

"Jay?" Katrina chokes, before I quickly prop her up and cradle her sleek form gently in my arms. "You okay, Kat?" I ask her, seeing her cry into my chest as she hears me say that. She's got one hell of a nasty stomach bruise, along with a faint red mark where she had been slapped during my brain fart. She's also drooling a little blood from the spittle she coughed up, which I am quick to wipe with my shirt.

"Why'd you save me? You'd be much happier with her, so why care about me? You'll turn your back on me, just like Mom and Dad did…" She sobs, letting me see her face as she looks up at me. Her facial fur is matted due to the foot that had been planted on it, and her tears stain it as well. I wipe her tears away with my thumb, before I quickly silence her with a kiss. The gesture of love only lasts a few seconds, before I part my lips from hers to stare her right in the eyes.

"I told you I loved you, didn't I? That means I'll stick with you through thick and thin, no matter how much you think otherwise." I remind her, getting her to look at me in shock. "But don't you like bigger teats and a human body? I don't have any of those, and she does…" She sniffs, to which I poke her on the nose lightly. "Kat, I never said I loved you for your body. Just as you love me for who I am, I love you for who you are. You're Katrina the Liepard, not a human." I add, getting her to smile.

"You're right." She realizes, to which I smile as I prop her back on her feet gently. "Now, come on! Show that imposter who's better!" I encourage her, while the humanoid Liepard begins to show signs of fear. "Wait, Jay! I thought I was the one meant for you! Not her!" She approaches me and begs me to accept her instead, to which I shake my head. "Sorry, miss. Kat's the one for me." I firmly speak this time, glaring her way.

Hearing my response, she growls as she bares her fangs and forms claws out of ghostly energy from her hands. "Then I'll end her and take you for myself!" She spits, Katrina hissing angrily as she charges up a Shadow Claw of her own. "Not if I have any say in this matter." She growls venomously, glaring at the imposter and making her laugh. "Is that so? You lost pitifully last time, so what makes you think you'll stand a chance against me this time!?" She retorts, to which I grin.

"Simple. She didn't have any help last time, and now she does. Kat, use Shadow Claw!" I yell, Katrina quickly sprinting forth to deliver a quick slash of Ghostly energy to her opponent. However, the imposter jumps out of the way of the move and glares angrily at the two of us. "Your efforts are pointless! I will beat you!" She yells, before leaping upwards to strike at the both of us from above with a High Jump Kick.

"Quick, Kat! Dodge!" I command, as I leap out of the way of the Fighting Type move. Katrina follows suit, using her natural agility to quickly sprint away from the area of the attack. With both of us out of harm's way, I refocus on the fight at hand. "Kat, try another Shadow Claw!" I command, Katrina managing to turn around and scratch her humanoid doppelganger this time. She leaves a nasty scratch mark on the other Katrina's back, getting said imposter to voice her pain with a howl.

"Ow! You are going to pay for that!" She spits, readying a Focus Blast this time. The ball of Fighting energy quickly charges up in her hand, before she chucks it at us. "Kat, dodge quick and shoot back at her with Shadow Ball!" I yell, Katrina taking action to avoid the dangerous light blue sphere before using her tail to charge up her own ball of destructive power at the humanoid in order to deal some real damage.

How Katrina charged up the move worked like a charm. The throw? Not so much. The Shadow Ball lasted a few seconds and didn't even fly that far before completely dissipating into thin air. "Uh oh." I gulp, Katrina looking on with disbelief while her counterpart shakes with laughter. "That was a Shadow Ball!? My word, you seem to have no idea how fighting works! Let me show you how to really make someone hurt!" She cackles mockingly, before she quickly tries to use Low Kick on the Liepard.

Well, then. If that doesn't work, then I guess we do something else. "Grab her leg, Kat!" I call out to the Liepard, who swiftly moves to wrap her dexterous tail around the powered leg aimed for her head. "What!?" The imposter yelps, getting me to smirk. "Shadow Claw!" I order, Katrina quickly forming the physical move and slashing at the opposition. The ghostly blades cut right through the humanoid's flesh, leaving a few deep scars on her torso and legs.

"Argh! You are going to regret that!" The other Katrina yelps in pain as she staggers a couple of steps back, Katrina smiling coyly as she finally lands a hit. "Nice one!" I cheer, the Liepard smiling happily at me in reply. Now that she's gotten a hit in, with a Ghost Type move no less, we should be able to end it with a few more precise strikes on the imposter due to her own Ghost Typing.

However, I am quickly made aware of the other Katrina in question dashing towards us with the intent to kill. "I am not finished yet!" She screams angrily at Katrina, who bares her fangs as she hisses threateningly in response. The doppelganger is already charging up another Cross Chop, and her sprint is rather fast as she rushes towards us. Meanwhile Katrina is tense, awaiting my command.

"Katrina, use Dark Pulse!" I immediately take action to help her avoid the super effective move, getting the Liepard to charge up a ball of dark energy in her maw. Once she's done charging, she fires a blast of dark energy at the opposition, who cackles as she raises her hand to block the attack aimed at her face. "You fools! Have you no idea what a typing advantage is!?" She grins maniacally, making me chuckle in reply. She fell for it hook, line and sinker.

"I know. That's not the idea I had in mind, though." I smirk, which gets me a look of confusion from the humanoid Pokemon. Katrina however, seems to catch on to my plan quickly as she smiles. "Kat, now! Hit 'em with Sucker Punch!" I call out to her, Katrina nodding as she sprints forth in order to deliver another close quarters Dark Type attack. This happens as soon as the imposter Liepard bats away the beam of dark energy, giving her only a moment or two to realize that she was about to get hit.

"Another Dark Type move?" She sighs and shakes her head, before her eyes widen as she notices something else a little too late. She had used her Cross Chop attack to smack aside the Dark Pulse Katrina had fired earlier, so for her to use another move to block Katrina now would only result in giving her more priority due to the nature of the move the Liepard was using. In other words, there is little she can do.

"Take this." Katrina smirks as she slams her Dark energy infused paw right into the face of the opposing doppelganger, sending her reeling from the concussive blow to the head and breaking her nose in the process. I'm no doctor, but that cannot be good for you. "Follow up with Shadow Claw! Don't let up!" I shout, Katrina immediately following up with a flurry of furious slices to her counterpart's body.

With each slash and rake of those long, dark claws that Katrina delivers, the opposing humanoid gets weaker and weaker. When Katrina finally lets up, she falls to the floor, passed out cold from all the cuts and scrapes that the Liepard had inflicted on her. "Yes! Nice one, Kat!" I pump my fist in victory, running over to hug her from behind. "Thank you, Jay. Your leadership did help me quite a bit, too." She replies, smiling as she croons her head upwards to lick my chin affectionately.

"Heh, you did the heavy lifting though. You've gotten so much stronger since we met, ya know." I grin, kissing her on the fore head and making her sport a light blush on her features as she giggles. "Jay, you really do know how to flatter a lady." She adds, to which I pat her on the head. "Not just any lady. I know how to flatter my lady." I shoot back, causing her to blush even deeper as she hears me say that.

"Well done, Katrina." I suddenly hear the voice of the doppelganger behind me, making the both of us whirl around to face her down once more. Ugh, can't she just stay… down…? She's smiling at us as she levitates off of the floor, her expression showing no signs of that hatred or malice that she had been emitting plenty of moments ago. "What is your goal?" Katrina hisses angrily, the entity smiling in reply.

"You have bested me, and by definition your own fears. For that I applaud you." The humanoid adds, Katrina's gaze softening as she hears that. "So, you literally tried to kill her just now, and now you're congratulating her on her win?" I say what I'm getting out loud, to which she giggles as she nods. "Close, but not quite. In fact, I have a reward for your victory." She speaks up, before floating over to touch Katrina on the forehead with an outstretched fingertip.

There is energy located on her appendage, and it quickly spreads out and around Katrina's body as soon as her head makes contact with it. She shivers in reply, but otherwise stares in confusion as I raise an eyebrow. "What was that?" I ask, getting the other Katrina to gesture to the Liepard. "I have bestowed upon her my reward. A new technique to use in battle, as well as a new alteration to her Soul that she may find very appealing." She explains cryptically, to which I look her in the eyes.

"Who are you really?" I ask her, the entity looking at me in surprise. "What does that mean? I am simply the embodiment of Katrina's fears and insecurities." She replies, while I shake my head. "No, that's who you're disguising yourself as. You're not really Katrina's dark side, because you broke off from your formal mannerisms later in the fight." I point out, which gets a shocked look from the other two.

"If she is not who she says she is, then who is she?" Katrina asks me, getting me to shrug. "I dunno. I can't read minds in the Dream World because my magic doesn't work here, apparently." I reply, just as lost as she is about the true identity of the humanoid Liepard. "I guess you could say I'm just as in the dark about this as you are, Kat." I joke, making the Liepard giggle as she hears the pun. The doppelganger simply giggles in response, before she begins to glow as she changes her appearance.

"You catch on quickly, Jay. Or should I say, Sans?" The figure, now a glowing ball of light, speaks to me as she floats before us. "How the hell do you know my past name?" I growl threateningly, while Katrina looks at me in surprise. "So, that was your real name?" She asks me, making me nod. "Well, the name my dad gave me. I go by Jay now." I explain, before I suddenly hear a familiar voice.

"Katrina! Jay, wake up! We need your help!" Shocked, I look around to find the source of the voice. However, I find no source of the familiar voice of Leah as Katrina looks around, too. "Hear that?" I ask the Liepard, who nods as she tries to locate the source of the Lucario's voice as well. "I do, but I cannot seem to pinpoint where she is calling us from." She replies, before we notice the ball of light floating away.

"It would appear someone is trying to sever your connection to the Dream World. As such, I must make a hasty retreat. Farewell, Trainer." The voice, still rather feminine, calls out to us as it takes its' leave. "Wait! Who are you?" I yell at her, hoping to get something out of her before she leaves. "Just know that I mean you no harm, Jay. If you continue down your current path, we are sure to meet again." She replies, before the world around us turns to white.

I bolt awake, my eyes now open to the waking world. Chell and Nesia are nowhere to be seen, and I see Leah's concerned face peering at mine before she sighs in relief. "Jay! Thank goodness you're awake." She exclaims as she eyes me, to which I look at her seriously. "What is it, Leah?" I ask the lupine, who quickly points to my left. "It's Nova and Katrina. Nova's out of control, and Katrina won't wake up!" She replies, as I lay eyes on the Volcarona.

I immediately see what Leah means by an out of control Volcarona, as I see Nova flying around erratically and spreading her flaming scales everywhere, her expression contorted into one of utter fear. "Over there!" I look closer and spy Chell and Nesia trying their best to quench the fires around our site, the Dewott blasting the flames she can with her Water Gun while the Servine points to each fire to help her out. Katrina is still asleep, and seems to be unresponsive even though there's a fire a few meters to the right of her. Seriously now? There's a freaking fire burning right there!

Meanwhile, the others save for Katrina are trying desperately to try and calm her down to no avail. "Nova, it's us! Please, calm down!" Lily pleads as she avoids a random few embers that fall from Nova's wings, Dani trying desperately to dodge the super effective move herself. "Hey! Watch where you're flinging those!" The Cottonee yelps, trying her best to use her weightlessness to her advantage.

"Nova, just calm down! None of us are tryin' ta hurt ya!" Cleo tries to reason with the Fire Moth Pokemon, who looks at the Flaafy in fear. "No! You're just accomplices to humans that are trying to capture me again! I'll be forced to do more unspeakable things, and used as a toy!" Nova sobs as she accuses her, tears falling down her cheeks as she flaps her wings to send another round of embers towards us.

"Damn it, stop throwing fire at us!" Alita groans, using her wings to force back the fire with a gust of wind. The winds end up scattering the embers all over the place, lighting more fires that Chell and Nesia have to deal with. It seems that this has been going on for a little bit now, if the surrounding fires and Chell trying to put them out is any indication. "Come on, try again! We've gotta stop her from burning our home down!" The Venipede cries in fear, seeing the damage done to the forest.

"I'm fucking trying, but my string just can't reach her!" The Sewaddle curses, shooting another round of silk at Nova to try and gum up something important. However, the string of silk quickly gets set ablaze and burns to ashes before their eyes. "Ugh, this isn't working!" Safia grunts, using her own Shadow Ball to attempt to stop the panicking Nova from launching another round of flaming embers. The Shadow Ball makes contact, but Nova remains floating in the air.

"Please, stop hurting me!" The fearful Volcarona cries out desperately, before she dodges the next Shadow Ball the Zoroark launches at her. "Stay still, god damn it!" Safia growls, her efforts proving to be just as futile as the others' are. In order to stop her, we need to calm her down enough so she'll listen! Judging by how Cleo failed to reason with her, I'd say she's not ready to listen yet. But what should I do to resolve the situation? Damn it, nothing's coming to mind!

"Nova, it's Jay! Don't you remember me!?" I yell at the frightened Pokemon, who looks to me for a split second before her fear proceeds to intensify. "No! Stay back, human! I have no intention of becoming your plaything again!" She cries tears of desperation, launching another round of her signature Fiery Dance at me. "Come on, you idiot! Don't make my job harder than it already is!" Alita groans in annoyance, using her wings to blow away the embers headed my way.

"Easy for you to say…" Nesia sighs, shaking her head as she eyes the extra fires added to her job list. Pointing to another one that was getting progressively bigger, she ushers Chell to quickly put out the growing flame before it does any real damage. The smell of smoke is really starting to permeate the air now, so I need to act fast if I wanna put an end to this. Damn it, but what action should I even take?

"Jay, what should we do?" Leah yelps, seeing the flames creep closer to our current position. "I honestly don't know, Leah. Chell's busy putting out the fires, while Alita is stuck causing them. They aren't going to be helping anytime soon." I muse, the Lucario's expression becoming panicky. "There has to be something we can do!" She cries desperately, making me wrack my brain for an answer.

My magic doesn't work in terms of cutting off her Soul's abilities to use her own magic, as Blue Magic isn't really good at restraining. As such, that only leaves me with one choice. "Leah, hold this for a minute." I take a deep breath before I take off my hoodie and hand it to the frightened Lucario, making her look to me with concern. "Jay, what are you-" She starts to ask, before I point to the Volcarona.

"She's spewing fire everywhere. No use if I wear flammable items if I wanna get close to her, now is there?" I reply, Leah quickly catching onto what I was planning to do next. "You can't! There's no telling how bad she'll burn you!" Leah pleads with me as she holds onto my wrist, giving me a look of horror as she realizes what I want to do. Gee thanks, Leah. You're really bolstering my confidence with your reaction to my plan, you know.

"Listen, Leah. I'm going to have to try and get to her, or else we'll all be in much bigger trouble than we already are. At least let me try this out, okay?" I coax her, to which she reluctantly nods and releases my arm once she sees my own resolve to fix this mess. "Just… promise me you won't get hurt too badly, please?" The Lucario adds, getting me to sigh and place a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, I can try to." I smirk, Leah giving me a shaky smile in kind. Taking a deep breath, I let my magic surround me. "Jay?" Leah asks me in concern once she sees me close my eyes and let my magic do its' thing. Oh, yeah. I haven't told her the deal yet. Luckily, she doesn't see the flash of blue due my shut eyes. "It's nothing. Right now, let me do my thing." I reply, before taking off and doing the one thing I can do: latch onto Nova's body and try to calm her down.

"Ah! No, get off me!" Needless to say, Nova is less than appealed by the sudden human on her torso. She's already trying her best to try and shake me off, her flight pattern becoming erratic. However, I hold on regardless, sending her dropping to the ground as she runs out of steam pretty quickly. The Volcarona tries her best to wiggle free of my grip, but I hold her tightly and render her efforts in vain.

"Nova, it's me! Don't you remember? We saved you from the Battle Club!" I try to talk to her, my eyes locking with hers in an attempt to get her to come to her senses. "No! This is another human trick! You're lying to me!" Nova cries desperately, now using her Fire to surround her body as she continues to try and escape my grasp. "Would a human do this, then?" I ask her, hugging her gently in response to her accusatory words. The flames burn and lick at my skin, but I persevere regardless.

"Mister Jay!" Chell screams seeing me get burned by the fire. "Mah god…" Cleo gasps as she sees my skin get flamed, Lily looking away as she finds the suffering unbearable. "You idiot! Do you want to die!?" Alita yells angrily, as the others are speechless at what I'm doing. "Focus on putting out the fires, damn it! The last thing we need is for the fire to spread!" I yell at them, wincing at the pain my magic seemingly does nothing to alleviate.

Nova gasps as she feels me hug her, her expression quickly shifting to one of shock and guilt as her flames die down and she realizes who she's burning. "Jay! What's happening!?" Nova yelps in shock as she sees me smile weakly at her. "Oh, hey. You're back." I grin, the pain of my skin stinging incessantly. "You happened, you big dumb bug! You hurt him!" Alita yells angrily, getting the Volcarona to gasp in horror as she looks me over, weeping tears of regret as she realizes what she did to me.

"I didn't mean it…" She chokes, Alita glaring with rage in light of her apology. "Well, you sure fucking looked like you meant it!" The Unfezant growls with rage, seeing me hurt by the same Pokemon I had accepted into our group. "Sorry isn't gonna fix the tress you burned down!" The Sewaddle shouts at the Volcarona while the Venipede glares her way, which only serves to make her sadder. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" Nova breaks down and sobs pitifully, to which I sigh and place a hand on her head.

"Nova, calm down. There's no need to cry. You just lost yourself for a bit, that's all." I soothe, Cleo nodding as she sees the Volcarona cry after the damage she had caused the forest. "Well, Ah'd say yer reaction is proof enough that yer sorry fer what ya did. Ah forgive ya." She nods, Nova looking up from her sobbing hopefully as she hear the Flaafy say so. "As long as you're sorry…" Nesia adds, Chell working on putting out the last of the fires with her Water Gun.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it. She said so, so I believe her." Lily nods, Dani surprised by her friend's forgiveness. "But she hurt you! You can't just let her off the hook like that!" Alita retorts as she glares daggers at the Volcarona, making me give her a deadpan look as she says that. "And I shouldn't have let you get away with hurting me what we first met? Besides, nothing a Burn Heal can't handle." I remind her of her own faults, getting the Unfezant to clam up and look away. "Fine, you've made your point. I'm sorry, okay?" She huffs, to which I smile and nod.

"Apology accepted, Ali. Besides, I could never stay mad at you. I like you too much for that to happen." I grin, making the large bird blush as she hears me say that. "Shut up, you idiot! I already know that!" She replies, trying to hide her flushed face. "So, do you forgive Nova?" I ask her, getting Alita to nod while looking away. "I guess…" She trails off, while the Sewaddle is still fuming. "That still doesn't change the fact that she burned those trees!" She points out, glaring daggers at Nova.

"Actually, the trees aren't even burned that badly." Dani points out, getting me to eye the trees she's looking at. Surely enough they are relatively fine, save for the charcoal color on some of the bark. "Well, I'm not going to hold a grudge if there isn't much of a point to." The Venipede speaks up, while the Sewaddle looks around the place for evidence to refute the Cottonee. Seeing none, she sighs and relents.

"Fine. But only because there isn't any major damage." She adds, Nova smiling through her tears as I wipe the rest away with my hand. "See? Nothing to worry about. Besides, I'd still care for you if the others didn't." I comfort the large Fire Moth, who blushes slightly as she smiles. "Thank you, Jay. I see I was worried for nothing." She replies, making me raise an eyebrow as Alita lets off a yawn.

"I dunno about you, but I feel like continuing my nap." She shrugs, sitting back down onto the grass to sleep the night away. "Same. Ugh, I'm so tired…" Safia groans, lying down onto a patch on grass spared from the flames. "Ah'll say. Ah need mah sleep…" Cleo sighs, using her own fluffy wool to rest comfortably on another spot. The rest of the gathered Pokemon share the same sentiments, as they all lie down once more.

"Seriously? You aren't awake?" Safia gapes at the Liepard, still napping away like the whole fiasco hadn't happened. After a poke from her claws, Safia confirms it. "Yup. She's conked out, alright." She concludes, Leah and Lily looking at her in surprise while the others are simply too tired to care. Katrina is still fast asleep, the fire seeming to have had no effect on her. Geez, she's one hell of a heavy sleeper…

"Hey, Nova? What were you so worried about, anyways?" I ask the Volcarona, who looks to me with a sad smile. "Well, I dreamt that I was back in the Battle Club, and that you weren't real. I feared the worst, and then I started to panic." She explains, making me nod as I gently rub her horns. "Well, don't worry. I'll be here even after you wake up tomorrow, okay?" I chuckle, seeing her nuzzle her head into my hand.

"Okay. I'm sure I can hold you to that." The Volcarona giggles, to which I grin as she says so. "I'll be sleeping over there. If you want, you could join me." I offer, Nova's face quickly heating up once she hears me say that. "Well, if you would like to have me…" She replies timidly, making me sigh as I pat her head. "Look, I meant that platonically. If you don't want to do it with me, I get it. Humans have abused you enough already, and I don't want to add to that list." I tell her, before looking at my sleep sack.

"Hiya, Mister Jay!" Chell waves to me, while Nesia is already ready to sleep inside the confines of the bag. "I see you two are ready." I grin, before I reach for the covers of the sleeping bag… "Ow!" …And promptly reel my hand back in pain from the burns on my hands as well as the rest of my arms. "Well, then. I forgot to use that Burn Heal." I muse, the Sewaddle bursting into laughter. "You're such a dumbass." The Venipede shakes her head as she speaks up, making me sigh. "I know, I know."

 **List Of Pokemon: Chell (Dewott), Nesia (Servine), Alita (Unfezant), Katrina (Liepard), Cleo (Flaafy), Nova (Volcarona), Leah (Lucario), Safia (Zoroark), Lily (Petilil), Dani (Cottonee)**


	66. Chapter 66

Chapter 66

[Jay]

It's early in the morning, and I'm snoozing like a rock. However, I didn't account for something waking me up so early in the morning. I feel an appendage poking me in the face a few times in quick succession, and I proceed to bat away the annoyance. "Chell, quit it. I'm sleeping over here…" I mumble, before Katrina's voice whispers in my ear. "Jay, it's me! Wake up!" Katrina hisses, making me crack an eye open.

"Okay Kat, I'm up. What's all the…" I stop mid sentence to see the imposter from the Dream World last night staring me in the face with an expression of panic. "Holy…!" I curse, leaping away from the imposter and right out of my sleeping bag. Glaring at her, I open my right eye to reveal my magic abilities. "What are you doing here? Where the hell is Kat?" I ask her, to which she shakes her head.

"Jay, no! I am Katrina! You helped me when I was a Purrloin, remember?" The humanoid Liepard tries to reason with me, to which I raise an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? Prove it." I challenge her, to which she points to my pocket.

"Use the Pokedex." She tells me, getting me to pull out the device and scan her. "Liepard, the Cruel Pokemon. These Pokemon vanish and appear unexpectedly. Many Trainers are drawn to their beautiful form and fur." The Pokedex reads, showing the Dark Typing above the picture of the Pokemon. The imposter was a Ghost Type, so she's the real deal.

"How did this happen?" I ask Katrina, who shakes her head as she stares at her hands. "I haven't the foggiest idea! I simply woke up this morning and I became… this!" She replies, panicking again as she looks at herself in shock.

Now that I think about it, there was an interaction between Katrina and the mysterious Dream World doppelganger last night. Maybe that has something to do with it?

"I believe that the doppelganger making contact with my forehead may be the reason why I am like this." Katrina says aloud, making me nod in agreement. Guess she had the same thought I did.

"Great minds do think alike. Well, any idea on how to turn back?" I ask her, seeing her smirk in reply. "Not a clue, but I can think of other things to do…" She trails off, letting me see her begin to fondle her newly acquired boobs in her hands. Yup, my erection's already at 100%. "Hey! Don't do that!" I hiss, making her giggle.

"Why not, Master? I can see why human females with large teats are so attractive now, if your soldier's reactions are any indication." She cheekily replies, edging closer to my arm and letting off a sensual moan as she pinches her own nipples.

Damn it, my dick is getting harder in my pants already! Ugh, stupid sexy Liepard. "Come with me." I sigh as I grab both of her hands and my bag, dragging her further into the woods and towards the river that I found yesterday.

"Nya! Master's being so forceful!" Katrina yelps in a faked tone of fear and hidden desire, making me roll my eyes as I lead her to the edge of the river. Might as well roll with it. Who knows when I'll be able to fuck her again, with all the new additions to the team on my back. Holding her hands tightly, I pull her close and push her down to the ground, letting her back fall onto the grass just short of the river shore.

"Now, I've been noticing you being really liberal with your sexual teasing. For that, I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson for being such a naughty kitty." I growl into her ear lustfully, making the Liepard beneath me shudder in excitement as she hears me say that. "Yes, Master. Please punish me, for I have been so naughty…" Katrina huskily pleads with me, to which I grin wolfishly.

"Good kitty. Wait here, while I get what I need." I add, leaving her sitting there while I go off into the woods to find some vines. It doesn't take me long to find them, snapping them from the trees with my bare hands due to my own impatience. Once I return to the river, I see the mischievous Liepard still waiting patiently for me. Once she sees the vines I'm carrying however, she becomes a little confused.

 **(Short Lemon starts here, kiddos. You know the drill.)**

"Master? What are those vines for?" She asks, making me grin devilishly. "Oh, you'll see." I reply, using the vines to tie Katrina up so that her upper arms and hands are bound tightly together. Making sure that the binds are tight, I then move to her chest, tying a simple cross pattern between her breasts to show off their beauty.

I then use some vines to secure a low hanging tree branch to her wrists. The rest of the vines go into securing her lower legs to her upper legs, and I prop her up to make sure she can't escape or unravel the bonds on her own.

"There we go. Now, before we begin, there's one more thing I need to do. Open your mouth for me, kitty." I command her, Katrina nodding as she opens her mouth. I tie a particularly thick bunch of vines around her head and through her maw, gagging her.

"Mmm!?" She yelps, feeling the vine block off her only method of speech. She tries to bite through the plant matter, but to no avail. Her head just reaches my lower torso, so she can look right ahead to see my dick pulsating in front of her.

Now that she's properly restrained and struggling in my grasp, I have a chance to admire her as I take off my clothes. "Mmm? Nmm…" The Liepard blushes and averts my gaze, as she feels my eyes analyze her amazingly sexy body for myself.

Her breasts aren't too big, but not too small, at a respectable B cup. Her abdomen is slightly muscular, just enough so that I can see the beginnings of a six pack. Her legs are slender, and they're pulled apart enough to reveal her pink pussy amongst her yellow fur. Her cunt is already dripping wet, slick with her juices as she eyes me with a look of anxious anticipation.

"Now you're mine, kitty. You're mine for me to use all I please, and no one's going to hear your cries for help." I chuckle huskily, biting her ear and making her moan aloud as she struggles in her bindings.

"Hmm…!" She gasps and shuts her eyes as she feels my nibble on her sensitive ear, turning her on even more. Her vagina contracts and leaks another small stream of liquid, making me smirk when I see it.

"But that doesn't bother you at all, now does it? Your beautiful body is going to be marked as you struggle hopelessly, pumped full of my hot, musky seed to let every damn Pokemon know you belong to me, and you're know you're going to enjoy every. Single. Moment." I slowly accentuate the last three words, making her blush a darker red as she hears what I have planned for her. "Nmm…" She moans as she wiggles in her binds, but not for the purpose of escape. She's enticing me to fuck her.

"God, you're adorable like this. Your body's something else too, ya know? I know people who would kill to have a pair like these." I groan as I fondle her breasts gently, making her breath hitch in her nose as I she feels my cock harden against her leg. She wriggles impatiently, wanting to feel me inside of her, but a quick slap to her thigh makes her yelp in pain. "Mmm!" She yelps, as I shake my head condescendingly.

"Ah, ah, ah. Good kitties only get rewarded when they do what their Master tells them to do." I berate her as I move to pinch her nipples gently, rolling the pink nubs in my fingers.

"Hmm, nmm!" Katrina moans with lust and pleasure as she feels me tweak and pull her sensitive nipples, her eyes glazing over with her own desires and need for my prick to be inside her.

"Moan for me, my cute little kitten. Tell me just how good I'm making you feel." I growl sensually in her ear, feeling her shudder as she hears me say that. Leaving her supple cleavage for the time being, I move my hands downwards as her chest rises and falls erratically. I trail my fingers along her abdomen and feel up her soft, warm belly, making her pant with lust as she eyes me with impatience.

"Nmm, mmm! Hmm…" Katrina pleads with me and tugs at her bonds, eyeing me desperately as I feel her juicy cunt leak more of her nectar onto my leg. "Getting hornier, I see. Don't worry, I'll give your slutty hole what it needs in due time." I chuckle huskily, giving her ass a squeeze with my left hand. "Hnnh! Nmm, ghmm!" Katrina gasps and moans, her cries muffled by the gag as she drools around it.

As I continue to lavish her ass with squeezes, I move to inspect her flower, now steadily dripping with her sweet juices and giving off the Liepard's unique berry aroma.

"Heh, you seem ready enough. Want me to reward you, kitty?" I ask Katrina, who nods frantically as she wriggles in her bonds. "Nmm!" She moans in need, trying to express her utter need for me to place my rigid member into her snug hole.

"Sure thing. Get ready for this, Kat. I'm pretty pent up, and I'm sure you are too." I reply, looking at her as I line up my achingly hard cock against her sopping wet vaginal opening.

"Hmm… Nnn!" Katrina moans as she suddenly feels me thrust into her love tunnel, as I grunt upon feeling her warmth enveloping me once more. "Mmm, I almost forgot how nice and hot you feel kitty." I sigh in bliss, Katrina moaning happily as she feels me within her depths.

Without wasting time, I begin to thrust into her eager cunt, kissing her cervix with my penis as she moans heatedly. "Hnnm! Gnn, Nhhh!" Katrina shivers and pants, feeling the mind numbingly good sensations of sex coursing through her being.

Her inner walls are already twitching and squeezing me tightly, her warmth massaging my erection as I thrust into her over and over again. As my cock pulses, Katrina lets out another breathy moan of delight, feeling me thrust into her with increasing speed.

I grunt as I thrust into her pussy with a quicker pace, hearing the squelching of her juices as my cock grinds against her wall with forceful passion. "Mhh, Ghmmm! Nmm, mmm!" Katrina moans, getting me to lean down and lick her neck lovingly.

Her breathing is ragged as her ears twitch, and her breasts rise and fall with every breath she takes. "My god, Kat. Since when were you this cute when I was fucking you silly?" I ask her, making her blush hard as she looks into my eyes.

"I wanna see more of you like this, kitty. Let me see more of this deliciously naughty side of you…" I growl lovingly for her to hear, Katrina shuddering blissfully as her pussy leaking a few more dribbles of juices. Her sex fluids provide more than enough lubrication for our lewd act of love, as I hear her moaning mixing with the continuous slick sounds of me pumping into her.

"Nhh! Nmm, Nnngh!" Katrina moans and whimpers as I thrust into her slick folds again and again, her walls clenching around me tighter every time I kiss her cervix with my tip.

Her drool is now leaking down her chin, and her breathing is sharper and more erratic than before. Her eyes are also beginning to roll into the back of her head as she finds in harder to keep her gaze fixed to mine. She's close to letting go, and so am I.

"I'm gonna cum soon, kitten. You?" I groan, pumping relentlessly into her sex with a vigorous passion only a wild Houndoom could match. "Mmm hmm! Plmmm… Plmmm! Lmm mm cmm!" Katrina moans, what she's trying to convey to me muffled by her gag. However, her pleas for me to let her cum don't go unheard, as I reach my limit and get ready to hilt myself within her depths one last time.

"Alright, then. Get ready kitty, 'cause I'm letting loose…!" I groan before I thrust into her depths, forcing open her cervix and spurting my hot, sticky load of semen into her womb.

"Hmm! Nmm… Ghmmm!" Katrina lets out a muffled scream, convulsing as her orgasm hits her like an electric shock. Her vaginal walls clench and unclench around me vigorously, as if milking my cumming cock for every last drop of my essence.

My jizz quickly fills her up to capacity, some of her juices squirting out of our conjoined sex organs and onto my legs and crotch. Katrina's eyes roll into the back of her head as she orgasms along with me, her body twitching as it comes down from the mind blowing release she had just experienced with me. "Whew, that was nice." I breathe as soon as I come off my own high, unwrapping the vines from Katrina's mouth and letting her speak again.

"Master, you shot so much inside me…" The Liepard turned human sighs happily, watching her own quivering cunt leak a messy combination of my love and her own nectar. Geez, I'm always letting loose so much cum inside her sacred areas, huh?

I respond by giving the sexy Pokemon a kiss, allowing her to share some of my passion as her tongue rubs against mine, tasting my mouth as I taste hers. Once we separate due to lack of oxygen, I pant as I stare her in the eyes.

 **(Lemon's over. Kiddos can look now.)**

"God, that was so much fun. I really should tie you up more often." I chuckle teasingly, Katrina blushing as she gazes into my eyes. "Well, I did enjoy it quite a bit. Perhaps another time, Master?" She suggests, getting me to nod as I untie my sexy Lieprad from the vines, before lifting her up into my arms and carrying her bridal style. She yelps at the sudden shift of her form, looking up at me with surprise.

"Master?" Katrina asks, making me look at her as we approach the river. I'm still buck naked, and so is she. "Well, I figured we might as well take a bath. We're hella dirty, and the others might be suspicious about why we smell like sex so early in the morning." I reply, lowering the Liepard into the cold water gently. "Well, I do suppose you have a point." Katrina nods, before she suddenly begins to glow a bright white.

"What the heck?" I grunt, shielding my eyes from the light. However the light fades as soon as it appears, leaving a confused and wet Liepard in its' wake. "So you can turn back." I comment, Katrina huffing as she feels for her breasts that are no longer there. "And I was finally able to seduce you into mating with me again…" The Liepard sighs sadly, making me pull her head in for a quick peck on the cheek.

"Hey, now. I liked you for you, not for your boobs. You have more nipples like this, anyways. Besides…" I tell her, before leaning in to whisper in her ear. "…I'd most definitely fuck your beautiful feline body again, if that makes you happy. We're lovers, remember?" I grin, Katrina blushing madly as she giggles. "Stop it, Master! Your flattery is simply far too much for me to handle!" She replies, batting my hand away with her paw.

"Okay, so I have your shampoo right here. Hold still, while I work this into your fur." I speak up, squirting a nice dollop of the stuff onto my hand and applying it to her coat. Katrina sighs blissfully as I rub her all over, getting the stuff all nice and bubbly. She doesn't utter much else, so I work silently. The suds are easy to wash away with water, as I cup some in my hands and splash it over her one handful at a time.

"I still am rather confused as to why I abruptly returned to my regular form." Katrina speaks up, to which I nod. "Same here. This is a first for me, Kat. I'm pretty sure this hasn't happened before." I reply, as utterly confused as she is about this turn of events. I also make sure to wash myself in the meantime while the suds settle. Gotta keep clean, after all.

"Hey, I have an idea! I'll need to grab a hold of your Soul for a minute, if you'll let me." I suggest, Katrina looking at me in confusion before nodding. "By all means." She replies, letting me use my Blue Magic to connect and wrap around her Soul, exposing it to our eyes. "It appears to be normal." Katrina comments, before she sees my jaw drop. "Jay? What's the matter?" The Liepard asks, making me point to her Soul.

"Woah. Kat, there's been a change to the structure of your Soul. Look." I grab her attention, pointing to the floating heart I'm showing to her view. "From what I'm seeing, our Dream World mystery figure just changed a piece of your Soul. See that speck on the center left side? It's red." I explain, which makes her begin to look rather nervous. "What does that entail?" She asks fearfully, getting me to chuckle as I pat her head to calm her down.

"Well, it's nothing too bad. That's one of the areas that don't provide much change. You might experience a need to fuck for a whole day, but besides that you should be fine." I reply dismissively, to which she looks at me in shock. "Are you serious?" She asks, seeing me burst into laughter. "No, I was joking. Nothing's gonna happen." I chuckle, making her smack my arm with her paw.

"Do not scare me like that!" She giggles, to which I smile in kind. "No promises." I reply, finally getting all of the soapy suds off her fur coat. "Okay, that's all the suds done. Let's get to shore so I can dry you off." I She's pretty wet by now, as she walks to the side of the river to dry herself off. I'm close behind, but she is quick to use her tail and splash me with water the second I reach her.

"Hey! That's not very nice, Kat!" I groan, smiling in exasperation as I wipe the water from my eyes with a hand. "Neither is lying to your mate, Jay." Katrina shoots back, to which I sigh and nod in resignation.

"Fine. I'm sorry for spooking you. Is that a good enough apology for ya?" I ask the Liepard, who nods as she uses her tail to reach into my backpack and pull out a towel.

"Jay, how you find the time to be so caring around all of us I haven't the slightest idea." Katrina says as she sees me finish up, watching me take the towel from her tail and dry off her fur.

"Well, it's like everything else I like doing. For you, I make the time." I reply, seeing her giggle as she looks over her back to see me pull out a comb and a portable hair dryer. I make sure not to hold the device too close to her fur, as the heat could cause a nasty burn.

"Mmm, that feels so warm…" Katrina purrs as she feels me work on her coat with the device to heat off all the water gently, while at the same time making sure to give her coat an even drying.

"What I wish to know is, how on earth are you this good with drying fur?" Katrina suddenly asks me, getting me to shrug in reply. "Well, I had my sister to experiment on. That good enough an answer for ya?" I smile, getting her to smile as she shakes her head.

"Experimentation on your own sister? That is quite the scandalous thought, good sir!" The Liepard teases, making me sigh as I bop her on the head lightly. "Har har, very funny." I drone as she giggles, before I start brushing her newly dried off coat smooth with the comb.

Soon enough, I get to see a freshened up Liepard standing before me, ready to face the day. I slip into my hoodie and pants, before slinging my backpack over my shoulders and walking with Katrina back to camp.

"Come on. I think the others should be up by now." I speak up as I push through the bushes, gesturing for the Liepard to follow me. "Well, from the sounds of laughing and the angered cries of a certain Unfezant, I'd say your guess is largely correct." She replies, as her ears twitch and face in the direction of our camp. "Man, you have good hearing." I mutter, seeing her giggle as she receives the compliment.

"Why thank you, Jay. Although, you are rather gifted during intercourse." She replies, making me blush as I shake my head. "Of course you'd know." I sigh, seeing her smile slyly as I shake my head in exasperation.

Surely enough, I quickly catch onto what Katrina meant by Alita being ticked off once I reach the rest of the team. She is glued to the tree with silk, after all. "Aw come on, Ali! Can't you take a joke?" Safia snickers, the Sewaddle laughing along with the Zoroark. From their reactions, this was most likely a team effort.

"Heh, got 'em!" The Sewaddle laughs, as I quickly catch onto what they were laughing about. Dani is snickering too, as Lily sighs and looks at the Unfezant apologetically.

"I am so sorry, Alita." The Petilil sighs as she addresses the avian Pokemon, Leah bowing her head as well. "Apologies for Safia's behavior, Alita. She can be rather… difficult at times." The Lucario adds, Alita sighing as she eyes the little Grass Type and the lupine.

"Eh, it's not your fault Lily." She replies, before she returns to glaring daggers at the offending pranksters. "Once I get outta here, you are going to pay! All of you!" She growls, while Chell and Nesia are busy striking various blows at random trees from a distance.

They're working really hard on their respective attacking moves, Chell keeping her Razor Ice in check as well as peppering the tree with her Water Pulse while Nesia is occupied with a mix of Leaf Blade, Energy Ball and Vine Whip.

"Ah know Ah'd hate ta have that in mah coat." Cleo comments, looking quite disgusted by the prospect of being gummed up by that. "Well, now I understand why Alita was so upset." Katrina giggles, much to the annoyance of the Unfezant in question.

"Hey! Not funny, Kat!" She protests, as I wave to her as well. "Hello, everyone. Nice day we're having isn't it?" I ask, before I look to a glaring Alita. "Well, for most of us." I correct, seeing Cleo smiling at me.

"Howdy, Jay! Mighty fine mornin' we're havin'!" Cleo greets me as I approach the group, as I smile and wave back. "Sup, Cleo. Had a good night's sleep I assume?" I ask her, to which the Flaafy nods to confirm my words.

"Sure did! Slept like a snake in winter!" She replies, Nova turning to greet me as she turn away from the argument for a minute. "Good morning, Jay." She nods to me, making me smile as I pat her head. Meanwhile, Katrina sits down on the grass beside me and takes a break.

"And a good morning to you too. So, I can see that Alita is less than pleased." I reply, the Venipede sighing as she shakes her head at her friend. "I'm not much of a fan of her pranks either, if that helps." She suggests, getting Alita to look at me with a scowl. How her beak even does that, I have no idea.

"Jay, help me out here! I was just napping, and she just decided to shoot this sticky shit at me!" She growls, using her gummed up wing to point to the guilty Sewaddle.

"I did, and it was hilarious!" She snickers, Safia and Dani joining in as Leah shakes her head. "You are so immature sometimes, sister." She comments on her friend's little stunt, who shrugs it off as she rolls her eyes.

"Aw come on, sis! Have some fun once in a while! It won't kill ya!" The Zoroark replies, the Venipede agreeing with Leah as she looks at the silk blobs now glued to Alita's wings.

"Geez, that silk looks gross no matter how many times I look at it…" She comments, shuddering in disgust as Nova eyes the white strings with an unreadable expression. The Volcarona quickly comes to a conclusion, however, and decides to assist Alita.

"Allow me to be of assistance. I am positive that my fire could burn off the strings." She suggests, beginning to allow some of her scales to glow a red hot fiery coloration. "Uh, Ah don't think that's a bright idea, Nova." Cleo speaks her mind, as Dani looks to the Volcarona with a fearful expression.

"W-wait a sec! Don't do that! You'll burn me alive!" Alita yelps, as I raise a hand to stop the Volcarona from 'helping out'. "Yeah, I'm siding with Cleo on this one." The Cottonee adds, Nova looking at the Grass Types in confusion.

"But why not?" The Volcarona asks, getting Lily to speak up as well. "Think this through, Nova. Alita isn't able to handle fire as well as you." She explains, as Nova finally begins to understand what they're getting at. "Oh! I am very sorry, Alita!" She apologizes, as I step in.

"Hey, Nova? I'm grateful you wanna help her, but just let me try. I know what to do that'll save all of us some trouble." I suggest, before taking a look inside my bag. "What's in there that could help?" The Venipede asks, as the Sewaddle looks to me in confusion as well.

"Silk removing spray. For any silk made by Bug Type Pokemon, that's what I turn to. It dissolves silk in moments, and the liquid is easy to wash away." I explain, to which Safia shakes her head in disbelief.

"Damn, I need to get that away from him…" The Sewaddle grumbles, making me eye her with a raised eyebrow. "Seriously, does your bag have something to deal with everything?" The Zoroark asks sarcastically, making me point to her.

"Well, no. I can't deal with your pranks, for one." I point out, to which she grins. "Good to know!" She says ambiguously, although I can already tell the next stage of my life isn't going to be all that enjoyable. "What have I done?" I sigh, the Venipede shaking her head as she hears me say that.

"It's not my fault you're such a dumbass, Jay." She comments, making me frown. "Ow. That hurt my pride." I sniff in a fake manner, getting Dani to snicker. "Hah, that was a sick burn." She laughs, Safia and Cleo giggling along with the Cottonee.

"Nice!" The Zoroark approves of the pun, while Nova looks quite guilty. Seeing her sorrow, I pat her head to assure her. "It's fine, Nova. No harm, no foul. Besides, that pun had a silky smooth deliverance." I chuckle, making Cleo laugh even harder.

"Argh! Could you help me get outta this before you start making those stupid puns, you idiots!?" Alita groans in exasperation, while Lily nods in agreement. "I agree, Sir. Please help Alita as soon as possible. If I were her, I wouldn't want to be stuck in that for long either." The Petilil adds, to which I nod her way. "Right. Sorry about that, Ali." I apologize, chuckling as I rummage through my things some more.

"Oh, and Lily? Thanks for the heads up. You're really considerate about the well being of everyone else, ya know?" I thank the Petilil, who blushes when she hears me say that.

"W-well, I try my best Sir…" She replies dismissively, although her flustered expression tells me she's actually taken the thanks as a compliment. Well, not that it wasn't phrased like that.

"Huh, nothing. I swore I had some left…" I sigh, before unzipping the bag and facing Alita. "Okay, bad news. I ran out of Silk Spray." I announce, the Unfezant particularly displeased with me.

"Aw, what!?" She sighs, as I crack my knuckles. "Don't worry, I have a Plan B." I reassure her, before I eye everyone else around me, the five new members in particular.

"However, I need you all to promise me that what you see me do next never, ever gets told to anyone, human or Pokemon. Okay?" I ask them, Leah and Nova nodding as looks of confusion spread over their faces.

"Uh, sure?" The Venipede replies, not too sure what I was getting at. "Okay, but why? What's so damn important that you'd not let us tell anyone?" The Sewaddle asks, Safia no more enlightened than the Bug Type is.

"Eh, sure. I can keep a secret." The Zoroark replies, getting me to nod before I crack open my eye and let it glow a bright blue. As wisps of magic seep from it, I use my hand to direct my magic and free Alita from the tree.

The silk just breaks off of her form without any sort of fuss, and Leah, Safia and Nova look my way in shock and surprise. The rest of the team aren't phased by this at all, as they've seen this before.

"Thanks, Jay." Alita mutters her thanks my way as she is lowered to the ground, making me grin. "Personally, I would have left you there a little bit longer. You looked nice on display, and you still do." I chuckle, making her bat me on the head with her wing. "You fucking perverted idiot!" She berates me, before blushing. "…Thanks." She replies, before glaring at me.

"I still hate you, you know." She adds, as I smile. "Yeah, I know. You're welcome" I shoot back, unfazed by her anger. "Quite the flirt today, Jay. If I had not known better, I'd have assumed you were flirting with Alita here." Katrina giggles as she eyes me with a knowing glance, causing the Unfezant to blush hard in light of the teasing. "Shut up, Kat!" She growls, the Liepard simply smiling cheekily at Alita in kind.

"Oh, that's why." The Venipede speaks up, quickly understanding what I had meant as I lower the now freed Alita to the ground. "That was what you wanted to keep a secret? I wasn't planning on telling anyone, anyways." The Sewaddle adds, while the other three are still trying to process what they had just witnessed. "Woah! Did you seriously do that just now!?" Safia gawks, being the first to recover and yell in my ear.

"One, ow. And two, yeah. I can use Magic." I reply, Leah sitting down onto the grass. "This is quite shocking, to say the least." Leah speaks up, eyeing me with an unreadable expression.

"I agree. When you had brought up the subject of being a god slayer back in the Battle Club, I had thought for sure you were simply telling a lie." Nova admits, to which I frown. "I'm not that untrustworthy, right?" I ask, the Volcarona shaking her head in response to my question.

"No, but the story of you being a slayer of gods is quite hard to believe." Nova replies, getting me to chuckle wryly as she says that. "Well, I do suppose that's true." I sigh in resignation as Leah nods in agreement to the Volcarona's words. "Jay, Nova does have a point. I know you haven't lied, but your story is quite a stretch." She adds, while Safia nods in agreement.

"Well, can't say I'm against Leah on this one. Before I trust you, I want to see some more proof. Sure, you can do that. But that's what Psychic Types do all the time! I wanna see some actual god slaying stuff!" The Zoroark adds, to which I look at her with a deadpan expression.

"You just wanted an excuse to see some of my other tricks, don't you?" I accuse, to which she sticks her tongue out and looks away with a cheeky grin. "Maaaybe." She replies, her smirk already giving me her answer.

"Yeah! You say you're a god slayer, so show us some proof!" The Sewaddle adds, making me nod. "Alright, alright. I guess I can show you my weapon." I sigh, before turning to beckon the two hard working starter Pokemon over.

"Chell, Ness. Could you two come over here for a sec?" I call out to them, the Servine and Dewott quick to heed my call. "Hiya, Mister Jay! What is it?" Chell asks, making me smile as I pet the Dewott on the head. Seriously, she's just a cute ball of energy all the time.

I feel a tug on my pant leg, and I see Nesia looking at me with an expression of jealousy."And you get one too, Ness. Don't worry." I add, patting the Servine on the head too and seeing her smile.

"So, I wanted to show you all something special. Safia wants some proof that I'm a slayer of gods, so I'm showing her my secret weapon." I bring the two up to speed, Chell nodding as she gets it.

"I wanna see too!" Chell nods excitedly, as Nesia eyes me with interest. "Secret weapon?" She repeats, her expression shining with curiosity. "What could it even be?" Nova asks herself, as Lily looks at me anxiously.

"Come on, take it out already!" Dani urges me, Alita agreeing with the Cottonee pretty quickly. "Well, come on then! Let's see it!" Alita yells, making me sigh.

"Be patient. I haven't used this in a while, so I might not remember where it is…" I reply, before focusing and reaching into the depths of my magic reserves to pull it out. As soon as I do that, I hear Lily let off a frightened squeak and see her hide behind an equally scared Cleo and Dani. "Holy shit! What is that!?" Alita yelps, as Nesia and Katrina eye the weapon with shock and awe. Welp, looks like I found it.

"Woah! That's your weapon!? It looks so damn cool!" Safia fawns over the object, while Leah and Nova seem to be almost scared of it. "No way!" The Sewaddle gasps, as the Venipede gulps when she sees it.

"Remind me not to piss you off." She tells me, to which I chuckle. "Don't worry, you three. It won't bite." I coax the shivering Grass Types and Electric Type, as they stare at my revealed tool of deity elimination.

 **Team Members: Chell (Dewott), Nesia (Servine), Lily (Petilil), Dani (Cottonee), Alita (Unfezant) Cleo (Flaafy), Katrina (Liepard), Nova (Volcarona), Leah (Lucario), Safia (Zoroark),**


	67. Chapter 67

Chapter 67

[Jay]

"What even is it?" Nesia asks me, quick to question the nature of my weapon. "Well, it's something I use to amplify and shoot concentrated magical energy at my enemies. Think of it like a tool to help me use Hyper Beam." I explain to the ever curious Servine, as my summoned weapon simply floats there and awaits my orders. "So, why does it look like that?" Katrina asks, observing it with caution.

"Well, it was designed for intimidation besides fighting. This way, it'll catch my opponents off guard when I fight for real." I reply, Dani showing me a shaky smile. "Well, it's scary alright!" The Cottonee agrees with the part about scaring enemies off, seeing that she is quite spooked by the design of the item herself. The device is a large skull, designed to resemble that of a dragon's. There are blue magic irises where the head's eye sockets are, and the object is almost as tall as me.

"Yeah, it's terrifying alright." The Venipede adds, before she sees the eye of the dragon's skull move to stare right at her. Dani quickly hides in Cleo's wooly coat once she sees the eye move, Cleo shivering a fair bit herself.

"Eep!" Lily squeaks out in fear as she watches the eye move to observe the Sewaddle, the Bug Type gulping as she slowly takes a step back from the blaster. "Uh, good dragon head…" She shakily grins as she eyes the weapon warily, making me chuckle.

"That is rather intimidating to behold, Jay. It scares me a little…" Nova tells me, as she looks to the blaster with some degree of fear. "Eh, it's fine. It's totally harmless, as long as I will it to not hurt you." I reply, patting her on the back of her wings and seeing her smile a little as her form relaxes in reply. Katrina also heaves a sigh of relief, her hairs no longer standing on end as she observes my weapon.

"Well, that's good ta hear." Cleo sighs, as if letting a weight fall from her shoulders. Well, if she had shoulders. "A-are you sure? It looks really scary…" Lily's voice reaches my ears, although just barely. In response, I approach the frightened Petilil and reach out to cradle her in my arms. "Don't worry, Lily. I won't let it hurt you, I promise. You can trust me on this one." I reassure her, getting her to nod.

"Okay, Sir. I trust you." Lily replies, although she's still a little tense in my grasp as she looks up at me. However, I see a smile on her face, which is enough indication that she's beginning to relax. "That's nice and all, but could you hurry up and put it back? It's kinda giving me the creeps." Alita shudders, staring at the large skull with a hostile look as it swivels its eye to stare at the Unfezant.

"Well, that's to be expected. The thing was designed to scare off Pokemon and people alike, so I guess that's some good design on Dad's part, huh?" I chuckle in response, while Leah agrees with Alita.

"Even though I've been training to handle my emotions, this skull still gives me a sense of unease." She admits, to which I grin and use my finger to boop the Lucario on the nose. "Jay? What was that for?" Leah asks in slight annoyance, scrunching up her nose in reply and making me laugh.

"Don't be so wound up. It's only analyzing you to see if you're a threat to my well being. Once it realizes you're not, it'll stop staring." I assure the lupine, just in time for the large skull to shift its gaze from the blushing Leah to eye me once more. All at once, the postures of everyone else present take on a more lax position. It would seem that the stare of the skull does have an intimidating effect on Pokemon, huh?

"That's so awesome! How did you get it!?" Safia is excited and quick to ask, Chell seemingly sharing the same interest in obtaining such a weapon if her perked ears and sudden interest is any indication. Man, she recovered quickly from the icy glare of the blaster. "Unless you want to have your eyes gouged out and replaced, I highly suggest you don't get this." I reply, recalling my blaster and pointing to my face for emphasis.

"Your eyes are not real?" Nova asks me, to which I nod. "Yup. My eyes used to be brown in color before Dad helped me shove in these new ones." I explain, Chell and Nesia quickly glancing over with looks of worry. "That sounds really messed up." Alita comments, looking at my eyes with disgust. The rest of the team is slightly disgusted by what I had said, but they seem a little concerned as well.

"Didn't pulling your eyes out hurt, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, making me smile as I see her concern for me. "Yup. Not as much though, as I was smart enough to get myself drunk with some alcohol." I snicker, as I recall the hilarious moment of a drunken me talking to my dad. "Wait, what?" Dani asks, as she seems rather unfamiliar with the term. "What does being drunk mean, Sir?" Lily asks as well, showing just as much confusion as her friend.

"Well, being drunk is what happens when you drink too much alcohol. Your senses dull, and you feel really lightheaded and carefree. Not recommended, though. Alcohol is toxic to the body, so drinking it isn't good for you." I explain to them the concept of drinking, making them frown.

"Then why drink it if it's bad for you?" Dani presses the questioning further, to which I shrug as I gesture to myself. As she asks, she and Lily both let off a yawn at roughly the same time. Are they sleepy?

"Well, humans like pleasurable experiences. Getting drunk is something like that." I reply, making Leah frown in disapproval. "Humans willingly subject their bodies to poison? That's kind of weird." She comments, getting me to smirk as I pat the timid Lucario on the head. "Well, it isn't weird to think that. I wonder why I drank like I did, too." I reply, seeing Leah smile and blush as she feels my hand rub her fur.

"Anyways, being drunk dulls the senses, so naturally I got a really stupid idea. I was thinking to myself: what if Dad put my new eyes in my teats instead?" I chuckle, Safia and Dani already unable to hold back their laughter as they hear that. "Seriously?" The Sewaddle and Alita say, both Pokemon giving me a deadpan look. "Yup. Imagine this. Whenever I used an attack, my tits would light up!" I laugh, the Zoroark snickering real hard.

"I damn near talked my dad into doing it, too! Jay, the god slayer with the glowing tits!" I speak dramatically as I smirk, Safia and Dani already rolling on the floor and laughing their asses off. "Oh my god, that sounds so dumb!" The Venipede giggles, while Leah simply shakes her head in exasperation at what I was thinking. "I know you were drunk, but that sounds really, really stupid." The Lucario sighs, as Nova and Katrina giggle in light of my experience.

"Why on earth would you get such an idea?" The Volcarona asks, to which I shrug. "I dunno. Blame the booze." I reply, while Safia continues to laugh at my past experience. "Heh, can't say Ah've ever heard that story before!" Cleo laughs, Chell joining in the laughter. "Master, you are unbelievable…" Nesia sighs, Lily nodding in agreement.

"Heh, I know I am. I wanted to keep my eyes, so putting them in my tits seemed a good idea at the time." I laugh, Safia giggling with mirth as tears fall from her eyes. "That sounds so dumb!" Chell giggles, before I suddenly hear her stomach growl.

"Hmm, someone sounds hungry. How's breakfast sound?" I ask the Dewott, who nods as she blushes in embarrassment. "Eheheh…" She rubs her head while she laughs sheepishly, Nesia nodding as she eyes me as well. "I agree with Chell. Food sounds good." She adds, as Alita nods to agree with the starter Pokemon. "I'm pretty starved, so food sounds like a good idea." She speaks up, already starting to lose her expression from hearing my stupid idea.

"Well, can't say no to some grub!" Safia grins and licks her lips, while I quickly check up on my reserves of food inside my own backpack. "Sweet! I still have some berries in here." I smile, taking a box out and setting it down onto the grass. "Sweet! Dibs!" The Sewaddle shouts, using her silk to latch onto the box and dragging it from me. "Damn it, give that back!" Alita growls, lashing out at the Bug Type with a wing. However, dodging the clumsy strike proves to be far too easy for the Sewaddle.

"Hah! Try again, birdie!" She taunts, Leah sighing as she gets up from her sitting position on the grass. "I'll get my own food, Jay. I'll be back soon." She speaks up, Safia nodding as she follows suit. "I'll come with ya, sis." She proposes, before her injured leg makes her wince. "Sister, I can look after myself. In the meantime, please try to rest up. You're hurt." The Lucario suggests, making me nod in agreement.

"She has a point. Let her take care of the foraging, and I'll take care of you. Sound good?" I quickly side with Leah, getting Safia to look at me in surprise. However, a smirk quickly graces her features. "Oh, I see. Trying to flirt with me now, huh?" The Zoroark teases me, making me shake my head. "Nah. I'm concerned for your well being, that's all. Besides…" I start, pulling Safia into my arms and making her gasp.

"If I had been trying to flirt with you, I would have kissed you by now." I shoot back as my face nears her snout, getting Safia to blush before she gently pushes her paws against my chest. "Geez, Jay. So direct…" She replies, letting out a defeated sigh as her cheeks darken a small shade. "That's our trainer for you. He is quite the suave gentleman to everyone around him. Even our Unfezant has fallen prey to his charm." Katrina giggles, as Alita blushes deeply upon hearing what the Liepard has to say.

"Hey! There's no way I'd fall for this stupid idiot!" She huffs, looking away from us and making me sigh. "I know that, Ali. Besides, you hate me so much." I reply sarcastically, to which the Unfezant looks guiltily at me. "I… didn't say that…" She whispers, before I smile.

"I know you don't mean it, Ali. Don't worry about Leah, Safia. She's pretty dependable, at least to me." I chuckle, as Nova eyes me with a pout when she hears Safia say that. Leah, on the other hand, has a blush already painting her cheeks as she fidgets.

"You showed me kindness before, simply because you were flirting with me? How saddening…" Nova sniffs, tearing up as she says so and making me shake my head frantically. "Hey now, Nova! I wouldn't be so shameless and mean as to take advantage of you like that. This is how I am!" I reason with her, to which the Volcarona smiles in response.

"I see. I seem to have rushed to conclusions, then." She giggles, as I pat her head. "You're really freaking cute when you want to be, huh?" I add, the Volcarona blushing a shade of red as she smiles sweetly and nuzzles my hand affectionately. God, she's too adorable…!

"I'll be off, then." Leah speaks up, a timid smile on her face as she departs. "Sure thing. Be safe, ya hear? If you don't, Safia will never let me hear the end of it." I reply, as Safia slugs my shoulder playfully.

"You betcha, Jay!" She snickers, as the both of us watch the Lucario leave hastily. We hear her giggle as she runs off, however. It's probably because of our banter, huh? "Quit it!" I hear Dani groan in irritation, making me turn to see the Cottonee in question eyeing the Sewaddle with annoyance.

She looks a little sleepy, though. Almost as if she didn't catch enough sleep… "Make me, fluff ball!" The Bug Type taunts in response as she holds the berry box, while the Venipede simply laughs.

"Geez, there's never a break with those two, huh? Freaking troublemakers." I grumble, Cleo agreeing with me rather quickly. "Ah can't say yer wrong there, Jay." The Flaafy adds, most likely remembering the soft landings those two had been using her coat as in the past. "Well, I can do something about this." I speak up, before getting up with a grunt and using my magic to grad a hold of the Sewaddle's Soul.

"Hey! Put me down!" The Bug Type shouts, struggling in midair as I pull her closer to me. "Not until you let go of the berry box." I reply, seeing her turn away from me as I say so. "Never!" She persists, before Lily grabs her attention.

"Um, could you please let go? I'm hungry…" The Petilil frowns, her sad face making an even deadlier puppy dog expression than Chell did as an Oshawott. She seems a little more down than usual, though.

"Please let go of the box. Please?" Chell adds, her own cute expression adding to the weapon's overall lethality as they beg the Sewaddle to relinquish her hold of the food. There is literally no way she could resist this type of move, right? "Ugh, fine. I'm bored, anyways." The Bug Type replies, as she reluctantly lets go of the box and allows me to move it away from her.

"Yay! Thank you!" Lily nods gratuitously, before taking a berry and biting it. "Yes! Dibs on the Cheri Berries!" Alita shouts happily, pecking one of the red and spicy berries with her beak.

"Lily, that cute face you made was so unfair…" I sigh, taking an Oran Berry and eating it myself. The Sewaddle only looks my way, but something tells me she agrees, too. Lily blushes when she hears me say that, however.

"Y-you think I'm cute, Sir?" The Petilil asks me, her timid personality now stronger than ever as she struggles to make eye contact with me. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's why the Sewaddle let go of the berry box to begin with." I add, said Bug Type shooting a line of string at my head.

"Hey!" She growls, making me shrug. "What? I'm just telling the truth, is all." I reply, getting the Sewaddle to blush in embarrassment.

"Shut it, Jay." She grumbles, as the Venipede giggles. "Well, looks like you've been played for a change, huh?" She teases her friend, who glares at the Venipede angrily. "Can it!" She growls, Cleo chuckling at the sight. "And here Ah thought Ah'd never see ya so flustered. Guess Ah was wrong." She teases her as well while the Sewaddle saying nothing as she eats, her face now relatively pink in color.

"Heh, the tables sure have turned." I comment, Katrina smiling as she observes the conversation. The Liepard has already taken the liberty of eating from the berry box herself, as has Safia. "Yup. As is the dangers of being a prankster." The Zoroark adds, making me chuckle as I nod. "Well said. This is from experience, perhaps?" I grin at Safia, who grins in kind.

"Of course I'd know. I'm a Zoroark, duh! I'm always out to ruin someone's day." The lupine's grin grows cheeky as she says that, making me gulp. Geez, it's like she's hinting that I'm about to have my day ruined… Safia and Katrina are both munching on Sitrus Berries, which is a little interesting for me. Dark Types have the same taste, maybe? Shrugging, I decide to bite down onto my berry, but I feel my own fingers screaming in pain instead.

"Ow! Damn it!" I curse, the Sewaddle eating the berry I was holding seconds ago. "That's what you get for messing with me. Ass." She huffs, before I sigh. Great, now I have to get another one from the box. However, Alita stops me as she holds out her chunk of Cheri Berry with her beak. "Y-you can have mine, if you want t-to…" She suggests, stuttering as she offers her food to me.

"Thanks, Ali." I smile at the Unfezant, who blushes madly as she drops the berry into my outstretched hand. "Whatever. Don't expect this to become a thing…" She replies dismissively, making me raise an eyebrow her way. "I am a little confused, though. You're not normally this kind to me, of all people. Are you sure you're the real Alita?" I ask her, making her huff as she turns away.

"I can be nice when I want to be, you idiot!" Alita shouts at me, to which I smile as I pat her head. "I know. Thanks a lot, Ali." I thank her for her generosity, making her blush anew as she nods.

"You don't need to thank me, you know. I just felt like it, that's all." She says matter-of-factly, despite her own flustered expression when she says so. "Alita is so tsundere." Nesia giggles as she eats her own berry, making the Unfezant's blush intensify as she glares daggers at the Servine.

"Damn it, Ness! Don't give this idiot the wrong idea!" Alita growls as she eats, Nesia rolling her eyes in response as she smiles knowingly. Not that I blame Nesia for teasing, though. I can see that she's pretty into me already. Chell, who is also eating her share of food, smiles at Alita as well.

"It's okay, Ali! Mister Jay doesn't mind if you ask for sex, as long as you love him! He told me so!" She adds, which causes me as well as most of the team to promptly choke on and spit out the food we were eating.

"Oh, goodness…" Nova speaks up, blushing madly at me when she hears the Dewott say that. "What the fuck!? Did you seriously say that!? You ass!" The Sewaddle yells, looking at me incredulously.

"I had no idea you were so bold, Jay!" Safia giggles, giving me the bedroom eyes as I blush in embarrassment. Damn it, Chell! You just had to say that and throw me into hot water, huh? "Hecka forward, if ya ask me." Cleo coughs into her paw, blushing at what she had just heard.

"You perverted ass!" The Venipede gasps, glaring at me as if I were the scum of the earth. Welp, can't say I blame her. I would have glared at me too if I said that. "Geez, Jay! Did you seriously say that?" Dani coughs as she looks away, Lily blushing the reddest of all the Pokemon present. Seriously, I'm seeing more red than green here!

"Master…" Nesia whispers, blushing hard as she considers the possibilities of what I had said. "Such an honest gesture, Jay." Katrina giggles teasingly as she pokes fun at me, making me sigh as Dani, the Venipede and the Sewaddle give me heated glares.

"Ugh, yes I did. Seriously, I wouldn't do the deed with any of you if I didn't have your agreement. Besides, it's kind of hard to keep it a secret to other humans." I try to defend myself, the feeble attempt simply vaporizing under the looks that the team is giving me. "You wouldn't mind, huh?" Alita mumbles, considering something as she looks away shyly. Seeing her so deep in thought, Chell giggles.

"See, Mister Jay? Alita's already thinking of doing it with you!" The Dewott giggles, to which the Unfezant promptly refutes with a glare directed at the Water Type. "I wasn't thinking of letting this idiot do me!" She huffs, making me sigh in exasperation as I eye Katrina before being reminded of our relationship. Seeing her respond to my questioning gaze with a nod, I decide to make my final confession.

"Well, since Chell already spilled the beans about that, then let me reveal one more thing." I announce, walking over to the Liepard and eyeing her seductively. "Jay?" Katrina blushes as she sees my expression, before I lean in and give her a deep kiss of love. "Mmph!?" Katrina yelps in surprise, before I feel her body relax. "What the hell are you doing, you idiot!?" Alita yells angrily, to which I ignore.

"Mmm…" The Liepard sighs into the kiss, closing her eyes and letting my tongue enter her mouth. Our tongues clash for a bit before I pull away, seeing some of the team's faces get even redder as they watch me make out with Katrina. "Oh my, Master. I had no idea that this was your way of telling everyone about us…" The Liepard giggles, her face flushed as the rest of the Pokemon stare in shock.

"W-WHAT!?" Alita shouts, her face now becoming redder than the grey fur lining her cheeks. Needless to say, some members of the team are a little too preoccupied with their massive blushes to say a word in reply. Namely, the recently returned Leah, Cleo, Lily and Nova.

"Woah, so you did fuck a Pokemon." Safia speaks up, still a little surprised that I had dropped the bomb on her like that. "Safia!" Leah shouts, blushing madly at what she had heard the Zoroark say.

"Seriously, Jay? You boned her already?" The Venipede repeats what she had just heard, getting me to nod. "Duh. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have kissed her like that. That's something I save for the ones I love, ya know." I answer, the Sewaddle also blushing red as she lets the information sink in. "You perverted ass!" She finally shouts at me after a while, which makes me sigh in exasperation.

"Don't say that. To be fair, she came onto me first." I defend myself, Katrina giggling in response. "And you came inside me soon after, Master." She purrs sexily, nuzzling my crotch and causing my member to swell with blood as I feel some heat rushing to my cheeks. "She's calling you Master now? Yeesh, that sounds a little weird." Dani coughs, not seeming too comfortable that we're sexually related.

"Pervert!" The Sewaddle and the Venipede shout, blushes on their cheeks now. "God damn it." I muse, Safia laughing out loud. "Hah! You kinda did have it coming, though. Fucking a Pokemon instead of another human? Pretty perverted, if you ask me." She reminds me with a cheeky tone, getting me to roll my eyes at her. "Okay, I get it." I sigh in defeat, accepting my new label of pervert.

"Oh, my…" Leah finally whispers, as Lily is blushing a deep red along with Cleo. "Uh, Ah don't think Ah needed ta know that." The Flaafy adds, looking away with a blush painting her face.

"So you like Pokemon in that way, Jay?" Nova asks, flustered as she witnesses the flustered expressions of the others around me. "Well, I wasn't so sure about it in the beginning. But after Kat confessed, I decided to give loving her a try." I admit, the Volcarona nodding in understanding as she smiles slightly.

"I'm so jealous, Kat! How did he feel, huh? Huh?" Chell quickly asks the Liepard now that I've revealed our relationship, to which Katrina shakes her head in reply. "That is something you will have to experience for yourself, Chell. Besides, I do not believe that Jay would be too happy about having his experiences shared." She replies, Chell slumping her shoulders in defeat as she blushes.

"Tch. I'm so jealous, Katrina. You got to be his first mate." Nesia speaks up, frowning at the Liepard in envy. The Servine is blushing as she says so, getting me to sigh as I look at her and Chell. Surely enough, their gazes are directed to me now, both with cute pouts on top of their red cheeks. Alita, in the meantime, seems to have experienced a brain shutdown as she's mumbling incoherently with a deep blush on her face.

"What's with the looks, you two?" I ask them, raising an eyebrow at the gazes Chell and Nesia are giving me. "Mister Jay, why didn't you have sex with me if you already did it with Kat?" Chell whines, making Alita blush even redder, something I didn't think was a possibility. "I want to mate with Master, too." Nesia adds, to which I sigh as I kneel down to pat the both of them on the head.

"Listen, you two. I did it with Kat because she admitted to really loving me, not because she wanted to fuck me. If you two just want me to claim your bodies for my own, then forget it." I tell the two starter Pokemon, who stare at me in kind with looks of confusion. "Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, not knowing how to respond to my words. "Master…" Nesia also says, as she is caught off guard by my words of doubt.

"I won't be happy if you two have sex with me without loving me in that way, so you need to think about this. Do you two really love me? Or are you just trying to have me for another reason entirely?" I ask them, seeing them stare at me with determined expressions. "I do love you, Mister Jay! I really do!" Chell bats away my doubts as soon as they sprouted, Nesia nodding to affirm the Dewott's words.

"I love Master too. It's the truth." Nesia says, looking to me with a serious face. "Tell you what. When you've thought it through, just tell me. Before that, I want you to focus on training as we always have. I really like you two as well, but I'm not so sure you feel the same way." I assure them, getting the two Pokemon to smile happily as they nod.

"Sure thing, Mister Jay! I won't let you down!" Chell nods as she grins widely, Nesia following suit. "I understand, Master. I'll work hard." The Servine adds, getting me to ruffle their heads and making them giggle before I stand up.

"Now come on, everyone. In case you haven't noticed, we still need to send her back to her swarm. Her mom should be worried sick by now." I remind everyone of the plan for today, to which everyone turns to me. "Got it, Mister Jay!" Chell speaks up, Nesia getting up off the ground herself in preparation to get moving. "Sure thing, Jay. Ah'll get movin'." Cleo replies, standing up and dusting her coat off.

"Sure. We're not doing much just sitting around here, anyhow." Safia agrees with the Flaafy, using her natural agility to prop herself to her feet in a quick fashion. "Understood, Jay." Katrina nods to me, getting up from her own sitting position and joining me by my side. "Sure thing, Jay." Leah nods in compliance, getting up after wiping her own mouth of any excess juices from the berries she collected.

"Alright then. Now, if you'll stop wondering what me fucking a Pokemon looks like, we need to go." I cough into my hand, getting the attention of Alita and Lily. "O-oh! S-sure thing, Sir!" Lily stutters as she snaps back to reality, quickly hopping on over to the group as I pack up my things and get ready to go. "N-no I wasn't! You perverted idiot!" Alita yells almost too quickly in reply, taking flight and leaving to soar way above our heads.

"Welp, guess she doesn't really wanna talk to me anymore, after the news." I sigh as I think aloud, Dani approaching me with a wry grin. "Well, you did say that you were having sex with Katrina, so there's that." She points out as she floats near my head, getting me to shrug. "Eh, I simply told the truth." I reply, seeing the Cottonee giggle as she floats besides me. Is it just me, or is she a little less energetic?

"Well, her reaction to the truth was pretty funny." Dani snickers, as she reminds me of the rather cute and flustered face that Alita made when she caught wind of my relationship with Katrina. However judging by her sagging eyelids, she doesn't seem to be too well rested. "Heh, I can agree with you there!" Safia snickers, as Katrina giggles in light of the commentary made by the two.

"Alita's flustered expression is rather fun to observe." The Liepard grins cheekily, which makes me look up to see the Unfezant in question circling us overhead. "Well, just try not to tease her too much about it, yeah? She's pretty self conscious, and I'd hate for her to be so worked up about it." I remind them, to which Katrina nods.

"Yes, Master. I promise not to." She replies, before slinking behind me as I finally pack up the last of my things and sling my backpack over my shoulders. "Eh, sure. As long as I can get my share of fun afterwards." Safia nods, making me grin. "That being said, teasing her every now and then is beneficial to me too." I add, making the Cottonee and Zoroark giggle.

As I get up to leave, however, I feel that my pocket seems a little lighter than before. I sigh as I eye the Liepard behind me, knowing exactly what had transpired. "Kat, give me my wallet back." I warn the feline, who pouts as she reveals her tail which is wrapped around my wallet to me.

"You are such a killjoy, Jay." Katrina huffs as she hands me my possession back, making me shrug in response. "On the bright side, you're getting better at sneaking things from under my nose. I didn't realize you had taken it this time." I compliment her, patting her head as she smiles at me. "And I will make sure I only get better from here, Master." She purrs in response, before slipping her tail into my hand.

"I see. Wanting to dispel my irritation by holding my hand." I stare at the Liepard, as I hold her tail in reply. "And I must say, it does seem to be working." Katrina shoots back, as I chuckle. "Yup, sure is." I admit, Leah and Lily simply blushing red once they see me holding the tail of the Liepard. "Ugh, quit acting so lovey-dovey." The Sewaddle groans as Safia giggles at the Unfezant, making me grin her way.

"Get a mate. Then you'll see why we do this." I tell her, to which she huffs and turns her gaze from mine. As I smirk at her reaction, I notice that Lily seems to be lagging behind somewhat. There's a noticeable change in her gait, making her appear clumsier. Not only that, Dani's movements are a little clumsier than before as well. Normally the Cottonee floats with a bit more grace, so something's amiss here.

"Dani, Lily." I turn to the two Grass Types, who look up at me when they hear me. "Yeah? What's up?" Dani asks, before she blinks a couple of times to shake off her own tiredness. "Yes, Sir?" Lily adds, before stifling a yawn that was about to surface. "You two seem really tired. Didn't you get any sleep last night?" I ask the two of them, as they both seem to be taken aback by the sudden question.

"No, no, no! It's nothing!" Dani tries to quickly refute my observation, as Lily looks down guiltily, not wanting to say a word. "Look, you two. I wanna help out, no matter what the problem is. You can trust me." I assure the two, Lily nodding first after the two share a worried glance.

"Well, we had a bad dream last night after Nova had hers and set everything on fire." Lily sniffs, already bringing herself to the verge of tears. Dani is saddened as well, but nods solemnly as the Petilil explains.

"Yeah. It was about… our old home. We woke up soon after." Dani adds, looking away as tears brim in her eyes. "We saw it, Jay. We saw our home get burned down, and our parents, they… they..." Lily chokes, that being all she could take as she breaks down and weeps. Seeing them like this, I immediately understand as I wrap the two in my arms and cradle them close to my chest.

"Say no more. I'm here for you." I soothe, the two sobbing into my chest as they remember the horrible past that fate had planned out for them. "There, there. Let it all out…" I pat their heads gently, whispering soothing words into their ears as they cry their hearts out.

Soon, their cries of sorrow turn into sniffling, and I smile warmly at them. "You should have woken me up, if your nightmare was really that bad." I speak up, seeing Lily raise her head to stare into my eyes with her own.

"But we didn't want to disturb any of you. We didn't want to tell anyone else, either…" She sniffs with her eyes red from sobbing, to which I sigh as I poke her head in response.

"Don't be such a silly-Lily. I'll always be there for you, whenever you need me. That's what friends do for each other." I remind the Petilil, causing Dani to look up at me as well. "You mean it?" The Petilil asks me anew, as I smile and wipe her tears away to prove my point.

"Hell yeah, I do. Nothing is gonna make me change my mind about it, either." I assure her, as she and Dani both smile and nods as she nuzzle my chest. "Thank you, Sir!" Lily cries out happily, as Dani hugs me as well with her own leaves.

"Yeah, thanks Jay." She whispers, blushing as she uses her leaves to hold my shirt. "No problem, you two. Now come on, we have a friend to escort." I reply, before walking on to join up with the others.

"By the way, you two can sleep in my arms for the time being. Nothing's attacking, and I'll make sure you're safe even if something does." I suggest, the two nodding as they close their eyes.

"Mmm…" Lily replies with a hum, sinking her small body into my embrace. Dani quickly follows suit, allowing me to feel the softness of cotton against my arms. As their breathing slows and they fall asleep, I see naught but smiles adorning their expressions. Heh, cute little rascals.


	68. Chapter 68

Chapter 68

[Jay]

It doesn't take us long to find our way around, as the Venipede and Sewaddle know the forest pretty well. The Venipede at least, is being rather helpful. "Come on, you dumbass! That way!" She speaks up, leading me with her gestures as I sigh in exasperation. "You know I have no idea what direction you mean, right?" I remind the Bug Type, who grins as she hears me say that.

"It's your fault for being a dumbass, Jay!" She retorts, to which I clutch my chest in mock pain. "Gee, I really appreciate the blow to my pride." I say sarcastically, making the Venipede giggle as she continues to 'lead'. Well, at least she is kind of helping. I get a general idea of where I need to go, simply because she's always staring in a certain direction most of the time. As such, we've saved a lot of time in getting there.

"So, how much further are we from the nest?" Cleo asks, to which the Sewaddle replies for her friend. "Eh, we're not that far away. We should see it soon." She tells the Flaafy, who sighs in relief. "That's good ta hear. The sooner you get home, the less you'll get ta ride in my wool." She says, the Sewaddle grinning as she feels the soft substance below her. She's currently hitching a ride on Cleo's head, by the way.

"But it's too much fun to pass up! It's so soft!" She giggles, before diving back in much to the chagrin of said sheep Pokemon. "Hey! Cut that out, darn it!" She groans, to which I laugh as I see the Flaafy trying to remove the pest from her hair with little success. "Here, let me help with that." I offer my help, Cleo sighing as she gives up in her quest to rid her wooly coat of the small invader. I placed Lily and Dani in the hood area of my hoodie for now, the two small Grass Types sleeping soundly.

"Sure thing, Jay. Ah could use the help." She admits, while I reach in and rummage around inside the wool of her head. Finally, I grab a hold of the problem, and pull the Sewaddle right out of Cleo's fluff. "Hey! Put me down, you pervert!" The Sewaddle yells, trying to bite me and struggle free from my grasp. She's honestly a little adorable looking, now that I take a look at her.

"Uh, no. Cleo doesn't need more trouble from you." I reply, as I place the meddling Bug Type atop my shoulder. In response to my gesture, she slaps my cheek with her large head leaf. "Take that, you ass! That's for ruining my fun!" She growls, to which I rub my cheek. "Ow! I was just thinking about how cute you were, too." I muse, the Sewaddle blushing with a surprised expression.

"I-I'm not cute! You ass!" She quickly changes her demeanor though, huffing as she looks away. "Heh, someone's a little dishonest now…" Safia, who has caught wind of the chatter, smirks at the reactions of the Bug Type. "Another tsundere." Nesia adds, simply making the Sewaddle frown as she gets angrier. "No, I'm not! I'd never like this ass of a human!" She retorts, getting me to frown.

"Ouch. That hurt my feelings." I frown, putting a hand to my chest in mock sadness. This simply causes the Sewaddle to glare daggers at me, hitting me with her head leaf again. "Shut it, you!" She growls, as Katrina giggles and gets my attention. "Alita used to act this way towards him, too." She comments, getting the Sewaddle to turn to her.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?" She shouts as Chell nods in agreement to the Liepard's statement, smiling cheekily all the while. Meanwhile, I wince due to the loud sound in my ear. Welp, there goes some more of my ear drum. "It means you like him, duh! What else could it mean?" The Dewott says matter-of factly, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "

What!? Hell no I'd end up liking this pervert!" The Sewaddle tries to refute the statement that Chell made, but her slight blush isn't doing her any favors. "Sure, whatever you say." Safia giggles as she teases the Bug Type, Chell giggling as the harassment takes place.

"No need to worry. I like Jay a lot, too." Nova giggles, seeing the Sewaddle fume as she is accused of liking me. "I don't like him!" The Sewaddle groans again, as Leah smiles at that statement. "Well, he isn't that hard to like." She adds, making me grin as I eye the Lucario. "Are you implying that you like me, Leah?" I tease, seeing the Lucario's face instantly grow three shades redder in embarrassment.

"U-um, I…" She stutters, her blush already giving me and Safia the answer we need. "Hah, that's so cute! My sis has a crush!" Safia laughs, as Cleo smiles at the lupine's reaction to the question. "Heh, no need ta get so wound up over a question like that. It's okay ta like someone." The Flaafy adds, to which Leah's grows silent as her blush only deepens from there. Meanwhile, Katrina simply squeezes my hand a little tighter, and I return the sentiment in kind.

"Kat, your tail feels so nice to hold. It's soft, too." I comment, The Lipard blushing as she smiles happily at me. "That is very sweet of you to tell me this, good sir." She replies, to which I smirk. "Well, not as sweet as your smile Katrina. Seriously, I'm gonna get way too fat if you keep treating me like this." I address her by her full name, getting her to blush deeper as she hears the joke.

"You truly do know how to make a lady feel special, Jay." She giggles softly, as Chell gasps in surprise when she sees the pink on Katrina's cheeks. "Ooh, Kat's blushing! Look, see? Her face is so red!" The Dewott cheekily pokes fun at the Liepard, who blushes a little deeper as she gets teased this time. "Katrina must be feeling so lucky." Nesia adds, smiling herself as she joins in on the fun. The Liepard's face is as red as the Sewaddle's at this point, the latter Pokemon willing to say anymore.

"And I thought we were friends!" Katrina tries to retort, but her comment is next to useless. "Yeah we are, but teasing you is too much fun!" Chell giggles, Nesia nodding in agreement to her friend's opinion. "You already have Jay to yourself, so it's only fair we have fun too." The Servine adds, acting as if her teasing was completely justifiable. Clever girl…

"Can't say no to some of that!" Safia smirks, as Cleo also giggles in light of the harmless teasing. "Ah'll say. Always good ta have a nice laugh every now an' then." The Flaafy comments, as Nova simply smiles as she hovers next to the rest of us. The Venipede also shares a laugh, getting in on the fun as we walk towards the nesting grounds of her swarm.

"Alright, we're here." The Venipede speaks up after a few minutes, indicating our arrival at her swarm's nesting ground. The Scolipede all sense the arrival of outsiders, and immediately glare at us as we step into their territory. "Crap, this isn't good!" Safia yelps, as Leah eyes the large groups of bugs with caution as she tenses up. "We might be in for a fight, everyone." The Lucario warns us, as the Scolipede get angrier.

"Do not worry. I shall also fight if need be." Nova adds, as she begins to allow her flaming scales to fall from her wings in order to intimidate the Bug Types. The large Megapede Pokemon are not willing to back down, as they simply crouch and prepare to use Steamroller. "No need to be so worked up, everyone. We're not here to pick a fight, remember?" I remind everyone, the Venipede nodding in agreement.

"Just put me down, Jay. I'll handle this." The Venipede tells me, looking my way with an assuring gaze. In response, I pick her off my shoulder and set her onto the ground, careful not to drop Lily and Dani from their comfortable position in my hood. "Nmm…" Lily mumbles in her sleep, before rolling over on her other side. Damn it, she's too cute and pure for this world!

"Hey, you knuckle heads! It's me!" The Venipede is quick to assert her authority over the others, as they begin to realize who this Venipede is. "Hold on. That's the leader's daughter!" One of them gasps, as the rest of them simply glare at me with rage as they get that little tidbit of information. "I say we kill the human and his slaves right now!" One of the Scolipede screeches, getting the support of the others.

"You filthy human! What have you done to her!?" One of the Scolipedes yells out in fury as it prepares to attack me, before I shake my head. "Nothing, in fact. She saved my life, and I'm simply here to send her home." I reply to the large Megapede Pokemon, who snarls as he hears my words. "And what makes you think we should believe you?" He spits, before the Venipede sighs before addressing her people.

"He's outnumbered, and his Pokemon are weak from fighting. Besides, everyone knows how scary Scolipede are. Why would he willingly come here to boast?" She speaks up, making the entire swarm of angry bugs stop and think for a moment, before another one of them come up with a counter argument. "Of course not! He came here to enslave us all!" The large bug shouts, rousing up the others anew.

"My child!" However, the sound of many legs against the dirt and a familiar voice suddenly cuts through the noise. As everyone turns to the source of the sound, I spot a familiar Scolipede mother rushing towards her daughter and stopping right in front of the little Venipede. Seeing the figure of her mother, the little Bug Type is quick to rush towards her and crawl up to her mom's head.

"Mom!" The little Pokemon yells with glee, as she nuzzles the head of her mother furiously. "I have missed you so much, my child! Are you well?" The Scolipede asks worriedly, to which the Venipede nods. "I'm fine, Mom! We even got rid of all the humans that were trying to kidnap us!" The little Bug Type reports to her mother, who turns to me with a hopeful look.

"Is it true? Have you removed the humans from the forest?" The large Megapede Pokemon asks, to which I smile and nod. "Yup, sure have. It's safe to say that no one's ever gonna come for you or your kin ever again." I reply, getting the Scolipede to smile happily as she wraps her many front legs around me, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Thank you, Jay! Thank you so, very much!" The motherly Bug Type cries with joy, making me chuckle as I pat her on the back. "No need for thanks, miss. I did what was right." I respond, shocking the majority of the swarm into silence for the time being. "That human actually drove his own kind from our forest?" One of the Scolipede whispers to another in the crowd surrounding us, as murmuring arises.

"Impossible! Wouldn't he have sided with the humans to lie to us?" Another mumble is heard, barely audible, until the chorus of chatter are silenced once and for all by a loud roar. "ENOUGH!" I yelp as I hear the voice, turning to see the leader of the swarm, and dad of the Venipede I was escorting. "That's their leader!?" Leah gasps, seeing the tough exterior and monstrous size of the beast before them.

"He's fucking huge! There's no way we'll wing against that!" Safia whispers to me, as Nova also shivers a little in fear of the intimidating size of the monster staring us down. Seriously, now that I see him standing up, he's even a head taller that the rest of the group! "And Ah thought he was big before." Cleo gulps, as I see her eyeing the Scolipede with fear as her legs shake.

"Ditto, Cleo. Stay calm." I warn the Flaafy, who tries her best to do so. Katrina, Chell and Nesia are all tense as can be, ready for a brutal fight to the finish as they glance cautiously at the big guy. It's like they're expecting him to strike any moment, and it's honestly freaking me the fuck out. I'm already sweating bullets, but I know I need to muster the strength to talk, or else we might all die here.

"Heya. It's been a while." I wave to the scarred form of the Scolipede, who glares daggers at me. Oh, shit. He does not look happy. "Slience, human! How dare you interfere with our personal matters!?" The swarm leader shouts at me angrily, making me flinch as I take a step back from the aura of rage he's exuding right now. Yup. He doesn't seem happy in the slightest.

"This was our fight to win, and you have the gall to fight our enemies yourself!? You shall pay for your insolence!" The Scolipede yells, to which his mate eyes him with a look of shock. "But he saved us all from the humans!" She retorts, to which the Scolipede scoffs. "And I did not need his help. We can fight to save ourselves!" He shouts at her, making her glare angrily at her mate this time around.

"But this was not a matter of fighting off the opposition! They were sneaking up on us, and they were clearly winning! Before this human dealt with the problem, our numbers were declining rapidly! We simply could not defend our home as the humans used their numbers to overwhelm us!" The Scolipede retorts, making the scarred one push her to the ground with a bash from his head.

"I did not tell you to speak, whore!" He tries to shut her up, making me growl as he insults his own mate so freely. What an asshole. "Mom, no!" The Venipede shouts, before turning to her father. "Don't do this!": The Sewaddle screams, unable to say a word as she watches her friend stand up to her father.

"Jay saved us because he wanted to! He could have ignored us, but he chose to save us anyway!" The Venipede yells, simply making her father all the more angrier as he stomps the ground in front of his daughter. "Silence! You are just as worthless as your slut of a mother! I never wanted to have a girl as a child, but she delivered you to me anyway!" The father Scolipede shouts and shuts the small Bug Type up as she stares in shock, tears falling from her eyes.

"Now that we have no more objections, kill them along with my daughter!" The leader commands his swarm, the Scolipede a little hesitant to follow up. Right now, they're all looking at the Venipede crying tears of despair. Those words have cut through her, dealing more damage than the sharpest of blades could. Bastard. "You idiots! Kill them now! I demand it!" The leader, rather uncaring of how much he had hurt his daughter's feelings, gets the Scolipede watching to close in for the kill.

"Shit, this is bad." Safia curses, gritting her teeth as she eyes the group of mad Scolipede around us, Leah narrowing her eyes as she raises her paws to fight. "Be ready, everyone. This may not end too well." Katrina adds, Chell and Nesia nodding as they tense up. "Protect the Venipede, everyone. Don't let him hurt her." I growl, getting the Venipede to look at me in surprise. Everyone nods, glaring at the Scolipede as Nova begins to show her flaming embers while Cleo readies her lighting.

"Stop!" However, another voice cuts through the thick tension of the area this time, stopping any of us before I could do anything to resolve the situation. I turn around quickly, seeing a Scolipede with some very familiar markings adorning it. If I remember correctly, that's Gore Lord. "Little sis!" The new arrival shouts, as the Venipede looks up to see the Scolipede smiling her way.

"Big Bro…" The Venipede sniffs, still pretty sad about how her father had basically backhanded her with his cruel words. "Ah, my son. It is good to see you have returned. We were just about to kill this insolent human for trifling in matters that were not his." The scarred Scolipede smiles, only for the other Scolipede to glare at his own father. So that's the Venipede's big brother, huh? Small world, this is.

"Why would you do that?" The newly arrived Scolipede growls, getting his father to look at him in confusion. "What do you mean?" He asks, to which his son gestures to the Venipede and I. "He saved all of us! He even spared my life!" He shouts, the large Scolipede taken aback by his son's sudden outburst for a bit.

"He should not have done so. This fight was not his." The Scolipede replies, now composed after his son had yelled at him. "But he did! You could at least be grateful for that! On top of that, you made Little sis cry! What the hell is wrong with you!?" The Scolipede interjects, making the father growl angrily at his son.

"Enough! You can either rejoin my side along with your mother, or leave with her!" He replies while glaring at his son, the younger of the two gritting his teeth as he contemplates this dilemma. Scolipede will not survive on their own for long, that is certain. Especially since if a Scolipede has to watch over his younger sister and his mother, both of which are relatively weak.

"Stop it." I mutter, the anger inside me reaching its boiling point. How dare he do this, that inconsiderate asshole. "What?" The Scolipede hisses, venom in his tone as he stares me down. "Stop it! Do you have any idea what you've done!?" I yell at the Scolipede, who scoffs as he eyes me with a demeaning glance.

"What I do is none of your business, weakling." He replies, making me grit my teeth before continuing. "You threatened your son, and called your daughter worthless. You even called your own mate a whore. I'm surprised anyone here even likes you." I shoot back, to which the Scolipede glares angrily at me. "Watch you tone, human." He warns, his warning falling on deaf ears.

"No, you watch yours! Anyone who insults his own family has no right to command them, much less anyone else!" I roar, seeing everyone else look at me in shock, the team included. "How dare you question my authority!? Die, insect!" The Scolipede shouts, charging me and attempting to impale me with his horns. He seems pretty dead set on proving me wrong, huh?

"Look out, Jay!" The motherly Scolipede cries out to me, most likely expecting the worst outcome of me being impaled upon the horns of the attacking Scolipede. "No, father!" Both the Venipede and her big brother scream at their dad, while the rest of the swarm simply watch, afraid that doing anything to stop their leader would simply incur his wrath. However, I simply chuckle.

"Funny. That's what I should be saying to you." I smirk, using my magic to hold him by his Soul and hold him in midair. "What is this!?" The Scolipede yells, trying to touch the ground but failing. "Magic. Now, I shall tear your Soul apart. When it breaks, so shall you. You will now feel an agonizing pain like no other, as deserving of one like you." I grin darkly, as I begin to forcefully split his very being in two.

"Arrgh!" The Scolipede shouts, feeling the immense pain of being torn in two coursing through his nerves and alerting his brain. However, there isn't much that he can do to stop me. "How does it feel, you disgusting creature? To have your heart broken, shattered into a million pieces? Now, feel the pain you have caused your daughter!" I roar, before I feel something butting into my lower leg.

"Please, Jay! Stop it, please!" The Venipede begs me, her gaze desperate as she eyes her own father. I look at her for a bit, stopping my attack on the Soul of the bastard of a Scolipede. "Are you sure about this?" I ask her, unsure if I had heard her correctly. "He's got a point. He is kind of an asshole." The Sewaddle adds, getting the Venipede to turn to me. "Yes, you two. Just please, put him down." The Venipede nods in response to my question, to which I sigh before putting the big lug down.

"Fine." I tell the Venipede, who sighs in relief as her father gets up and stumbles a little as he does so. "Father, are you okay?" The Venipede asks as she rushes to her father's side, only for the Scolipede to use his head to brutally smack her away from him. "I don't need your concern, weakling!" He bellows, allowing me to see the poor Bug Type roll to a stop next to me.

"Sister!" Her brother cries out, her mother shocked into silence as she watches her mate deal with his own flesh and blood in that way. "No!" The Sewaddle cires, glaring daggers at the big Scolipede. "You piece of shit! I'll kill you!" She screams at him, while Chell and Nesia glare daggers at the scarred Scolipede in question.

"That was uncalled for, ya big ol' brute!" Cleo yells angrily, charging up her electricity as Leah growls. "That was a dick move, asshole!" Alita adds, already preparing to unleash a quick barrage of Air Cutter blades. "I agree with them. That was not the best course of action." Katrina agrees with the rest of the team, glaring along with Nova and Safia.

"Planning to fight? Fine. Kill them!" The grounded Scolipede shouts, the rest of the swarm glaring at us anew as they get ready to fight. "Don't attack them! They saved the rest of us!" The Venipede's big brother yells in my defence, getting the father to growl angrily as her directs his anger towards his son.

"Shut up! Kill them, and do it right now!" The scarred Scolipede barks out the order again, leaving the rest of the Scolipede confused as to what they were to do. However, I simply crouch down to scoop the Venipede off the ground and pat her carapace clean of any dirt.

"You okay? You're not hurt too badly, are you?" I ask the weakened Bug Type, who nods in reply as she looks to me with teary eyes. "He hurt me, even after I stood up for him… Why…?" She chokes, sobbing as I sigh and gesture to my teammates. "That's it. We're leaving, and we're taking her with us." I speak up to everyone present, getting some of them to look at me in shock and anger.

"What!? But he hurt her! We need to get revenge, damn it!" The Sewaddle protests against my command, while Alita is quick to agree with that statement. "Yeah, you idiot! He hurt her!" The Unfezant adds, while I shake my head in reply. "Think about it. Getting into a fight here is just going to be bad, because we're really outnumbered here." I remind them, looking at the angry swarm surrounding us.

"I don't wanna risk any of your lives just for petty revenge, either. The best choice here is to leave while we still can." I continue, getting Cleo to sigh before she nods. "Well, Ah can't really argue with that. We should skedaddle while we can." The Flaafy speaks up, Katrina nodding to show her agreement.

"Let's just get outta here, and fast. I honestly don't wanna see this asshole for any longer than I have to." Safia adds, before shooting a glare at the scarred Scolipede. "Come on, Mister Jay. He gets on my nerves." Chell growls, to which I nod. "You just spoke my mind, kiddo." I tell her and quickly turn around to leave, the rest of the team following suit as they all follow behind.

"Heh, fine. Take the weakling and leave, human. That's two birds with one stone." The Megapede Pokemon in question chuckles, making me abruptly stop and clench my fist mid stride. The Sewaddle seems plenty angry as well, and seems ready to beat the crap out of him.

"Now, listen here! Just because she isn't male, doesn't mean she's weak!" I immediately move to refute his statement, to which he simply laughs. "Jay?" The Sewaddle asks, looking at me like I had just grown a second head. "Yeah, you should get used to that happening. Jay just can't say no to speaking up for what he believes in." Alita, having noticed her surprise, smirks as she says so.

"Really? She can't fight, and needs so many of the swarm to back her up. If she were capable, she would have evolved a long time ago. She's worthless, human. If I were you, I would just kill her now." The scarred Scolipede replies, the Venipede sobbing pitifully as she hears the stinging words of her own father. However, I simply pet the crying Venipede gently, trying to soothe her pain as I face her father down.

"Just because she won't evolve, doesn't mean she's weak either. I'll train her, and I'll make sure that she becomes the best damn Scolipede the world has to offer!" I declare, shocking said Venipede as she looks up at me in surprise. This bold statement catches the gathered Scolipede off guard too, while the rest of the team smiles knowingly.

"Hah! Good luck." The Scolipede snickers, as I turn to his mate and the Venipede's big brother. "I will take care of her, and you will see each other again. As long as I'm still alive, you can count on that." I tell the two Scolipede, the mother nodding in gratitude as she smiles tearfully at me.

"Thank you, Jay." The mother says, as her son eyes me thankfully himself. "Thanks for this, human." Her son adds, to which I smile. "Happy to help. Next time we meet, I do hope it's on better terms. Preferably with a new leader." I reply, before I turn to the team. "Come on, everyone. We should go, before he gets to insult her any longer." I speak up, before all of us leave the nesting grounds.

"Jay, you stood up for me. Why…?" The Venipede sniffs, having cried away most of her tears by now, although some still stains her cheeks. Most of it is on my hoodie though. "No one deserves to be called useless, when they weren't even given a chance to prove themselves." I reply simply, getting the Venipede to look at me sadly.

"But my dad, he… told me I was worthless…" She chokes, tears beginning to form in her eyes anew. Seeing this, I shake my head. "Hell no, you aren't! You saved me before, remember? Besides, he didn't even give you a passing glance. I'd be more than happy to help you prove him wrong, and I'm sure most of us here want to help out, too." I assure her, to which the Sewaddle nods in determination.

"He's right, ya know! I'll help you get stronger, and I know you'll become really powerful!" The Bug Type helps to comfort her friend, as Leah nods as well. "You don't need to listen to his words, not anymore. You have us to help you." The Lucario adds, smiling warmly at the Venipede as she sniffs and looks at them.

"Yeah! We'll prove him wrong! Just wait and see!" Chell declares, putting a paw to her chest as she grins at the Venipede confidently. "Jay is a very nice person to be around." Nova adds, getting Nesia to nod. "Master is weird, but he's reliable." She admits, getting Alita to pitch in as well.

"Yup, I can agree with that." She adds, to which I frown at the Servine and the Unfezant. "What's that supposed to mean, huh?" I huff, to which Nesia smiles at me while Safia giggles. "It means you're weird, idiot." Alita says matter-of-factly, making me sigh in defeat.

"So, yeah. You heard 'em, right? We'll help you be the best Scolipede there is. So, how about it? Wanna join our family?" I chuckle, seeing her look at everyone supporting her, then back to me before she resigns and sighs. "Damn it, you dumbass. Why'd you have to make this sound so convincing? I'm in." She smiles, getting the Sewaddle to nod too.

"Don't count me out!" She grins as well, making me raise an eyebrow her way. "Seriously? I thought you hated me." I remind her of what she had said, getting her to huff as she looks away. "Don't get me wrong, Jay. I still hate you, but I can get used to having you around. Besides, I'm doing this for her." She replies, gesturing to the Venipede to prove her point.

"Or maybe you just like Jay and want to get closer to him. That it?" Safia grins teasingly, getting Cleo and Katrina to giggle as the Sewaddle's cheeks flush. "No! There's no way I'd like this ass, anyways!" She retorts, but her red face isn't doing her any favors. "Aw, come on now! There's no need ta be shy when it comes ta lovin' someone." Cleo grins, before the Sewaddle suddenly grins back as she gets an idea.

"You know what? Since we're teammates now, how about a ride?" She asks, not waiting for an answer from the confused Flaafy as she jumps into her coat and burrows into it. "H-hey! Get outta there, consarn it!" Cleo groans, trying her best use her stubby paws to try and grab the Sewaddle and remove her from her wooly coat. "Not a chance, fluffy!" The Sewaddle laughs victoriously, seemingly satisfied with her own form of vengeance for now.

"Sir? What's going on?" Lily asks sleepily, finally having woken up from her nap time within the safe confines of my hood. "Ugh, is nap time over already?" Dani groans irritably, shielding her eyes from the sun that's shining brightly in her face. "Finally up, you two? You missed some stuff, alright. Let me fill you in." I suggest, before bringing them down to ground level and explaining what had happened.

"Wow. That guy sounds like an asshole." Dani comments, to which I nod. "Don't worry. I'm sure Jay will be able to help!" Lily reassures the two Bug Types, while I finally realize something. "Wait a sec. Do the two of you have names?" I ask the Venipede and Sewaddle, getting them to shake their heads.

"Nope. Mom never bothered giving me one." The Sewaddle replies, while the Venipede simply looks down sadly. "Alright, then. How about I name the two of you?" I suggest, getting the Sewaddle to convey a shrug, despite her lack of shoulders to do so. "Eh, fine." She replies, the Venipede nodding as she says so. "Just don't give us stupid names, dumbass." She warms me, while I nod and begin to think.

"Hmm… I could call you Taylor." I muse, looking at the Sewaddle with a glance of consideration before eyeing the Venipede. "And as for you, I think Belladonna could work. After the poisonous flower." I add, before I nod to myself and come to my won conclusion. "Okay! From henceforth, you shall be known as Taylor, and you shall be Belladonna." I conclude, gesturing to the Sewaddle and Venipede respectively.

"Taylor sounds… okay, actually. Wait, why such a long name for her?" Taylor asks me, getting me gesture to Belladonna. "Well, she's a Poison Type. The flower with the same name is also poisonous, but can also be pretty useful in medicines for humans. So, Belladonna to prove that she's a great help and deadly all the same." I explain my reasoning, getting the Venipede to smile gratefully as she hears me out.

"But since I'm lazy, I'll just call you Bella for short." I shrug nonchalantly as I finish, getting Belladonna to smile wryly. "Seriously, you dumbass? Can't even bother calling me by my full name now?" She asks, in slight disbelief that I had switched from being so comforting to being regular old lazy me again so soon.

"It's not the easiest name to repeat again and again, Bella. Cut a guy some slack, will ya?" I protest, getting the Venipede to smirk at me as she hears my defense. "You don't even have anything to do, so why cut you any slack at all?" She teases, making Taylor and Safia giggle as the Venipede takes another shot at my pride.

"She's gotta point, you know!" Safia joins in, while I frown in a fake manner. "Ouch, you two. I really needed that." I tell them sarcastically, getting Safia to grin at me. "Anytime, Jay." The Zoroark replies, Leah simply sighing as Katrina and Dani join in on the laughter. "You really got your ass handed to you this time, Jay!" The Cottonee snickers, while Nova simply opts to look my way with a comforting glance.

"Well, can't say she's wrong there." Cleo chimes, getting a kick out of this as well. "Yup! Mister Jay is pretty lazy!" Chell adds, the Dewott giggling as Nesia simply nods in agreement to her friend's words. "Agreed. Master is so lazy." She adds, to which I sigh in defeat.

"Alright, alright. No need to rub it in, okay? My feelings hurt enough already." I admit my loss, while Lily glances at me with a small smile. "You work hard too, Sir! You make sure that each of us is happy here with you, so I don't think you're lazy at all." The Petilil replies, to which I sniff in an exaggerated manner before picking her up and cradling her to my chest.

"Thank you, Lily! You're my only beacon of nice words in this oppressive team!" I moan in mock sadness as Lily yelps from the sudden contact, getting Alita to sigh as she smacks me over the head. "Come on, you idiot. We should get some training done, right?" The Unfezant reminds me, as I nod in response.

"Oh, yeah! Come on, everyone. Let's find a nice place to settle down, then we'll get working. Sound good?" I suggest, getting nods of approval from everyone else. Now, to find a good place to train with…

 **Current Ensemble:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	69. Chapter 69

Chapter 69

[Jay]

Finding a place to train wasn't that hard, as we soon find a clearing we can use to practice in. The random branches, sticks and rocks littered around the place weren't that hard to remove, either. With twelve other pairs of hands helping out, that's to be expected. Granted some of them don't have hands, but still.

"Alright, that the last of it." I sigh, moving the last of the debris away from our soon to be training area. "Okay, so all of you just train here for now. While I go find stuff for lunch, you girls can work out your own moves. Try using them faster first, or with more times. Or, try using them with better aim. For now, that'll be enough. Got all that?" I am quick to lay out the plans I have, Chell being quick to answer.

"Got it, Mister Jay!" Chell nods with a smile, Nesia nodding as well. "Understood." Katrina says, while Leah nods as she surveys the nearby trees and dashes off to find a nice target to practice with.

"Yeah, yeah." Alita nods, taking flight to get her own aerial training, getting Taylor to smirk at the avian Pokemon. "You're not gonna get that much done, birdbrain!" She taunts the Unfezant, who glares daggers at the nagging little bug.

"What did you say, you little creepy crawly!?" Alita fumes, as she spits her own insult at the Sewaddle. "I said you're not gonna do much, feathered freak!" Needless to say, Taylor doesn't take kindly to that insult.

"You little silk spewing shithead!" Alita growls in response to that one, venom lacing her very voice as she retorts to Taylor's comment. Taylor's growling as well, both sides probably about to fight. As much as I'm compelled to see how it ends, I need to break this up.

"Come on, you two. Quit arguing." I sigh, getting their attention. "Stay outta this!" Alita and Taylor both yell at me, the Venipede sighing as she witnesses my failed attempt. "They're not gonna make nice anytime soon, Jay." She states, getting me to walk over to Alita and tap her on the back.

"What!? Can't you see I'm trying to fight off this little bug here!?" The Unfezant shouts, as irritated as ever when I try to address her. However, I shake my head and pat her on the head.

"Don't fight her, Ali. You're better than this. Besides, you're cuter when you're not pissed." I coax the Flying Type, who blushes profusely as she looks at me in shock for a moment. However, the moment quickly passes and she huffs as she looks away.

"You idiot. If you wanted me to stop fighting, you didn't have to tell me that…" She mutters, quite flustered at the fact that I had just complimented her. "But I kinda had too. You were pretty heated when I tried to talk to you just now." I remind her, getting her to huff as she finds no counter statement to refute mine.

"Well, you were probably gonna beak her up good, anyways. I'd have to use another Potion." I grin, making the Unfezant groan at the pun. "Seriously, you idiot!? I thought we were having a moment!" Alita says, in disbelief that I had said that.

"Yup, we were. Don't worry, Ali. We'll have more time to ketchup later." I grin, taking out my bottle of ketchup and sipping from it. "God damn it, stop making those puns!" Alita yells in exasperation, as I chuckle at her reactions.

"You're such a dumbass, Jay." Belladonna sighs with a wry smile, to which I shrug. "Eh, puns have always been my thing. Well, that and being lazy." I reply, getting a few giggles from Leah and Nova in the process.

"Master is unbelievable." Nesia shakes her head, as I smile at the Servine. Chell is quick to join in on the laughter, while Lily and Dani smile as well. "Get to training, you two. There's gonna be time for laughs later." I tell the gathered Pokemon, Lily nodding in reply.

"Yes, Sir!" The Petilil replies, Dani smirking at her friend's enthusiasm as they make their way over to another tree and begin to use Giga Drain. Meanwhile Katrina, who had been eyeing our conversation with an amused smile at that point, also decides to find a spot to practice her own moves.

"Gotcha, Jay. I'll help Sis out." Safia grins as she sprints over to Leah's general direction, ready to train alongside her Lucario sister. "Ah hear ya, Jay." Cleo nods as she walks over to Lily and Dani, making sure to try and aim her Thunder strikes.

"And Nova, try not to set too many things alight. Aim for the rocks instead, and not the trees. It's pretty hard to extinguish flames like yours, so watch out." I warn the Volcarona as I point to some large rocks nearby, who nods my way with a smile.

"I understand, Jay. Thanks for the warning." Nova replies, before floating off to burn up the rocks that she has her eyes on. She might say that like she means it, but I'm still worried that she'll set something alight by accident. I'll need Chell to keep an eye on her, and put out any potential fires.

"Chell, you and Ness should still keep an eye on her. Just in case she misses, and something that shouldn't be on fire is." I whisper to the Dewott beside me once Nova is out of earshot, who nods my way.

"Sure thing, Mister Jay!" She affirms my words, poking Nesia's back and telling her all about what I want them to do. Once Nesia gets all the information she needs, they quickly run over and deliberately assume a training spot next to the Volcarona.

"Chell? Nesia? What are the two of you doing here?" Nova asks, once she realizes that the two starter Pokemon have decided to move so close to her. Initially, Chell is unable to reply, her expression reflecting her attempt to come up with an excuse.

"Well, this spot seems to be a nice place to train! Right, Ness?" Chell quickly turns to the Servine, who nods as she quickly goes along with Chell's bluff. Well, that wasn't the best reason possible, but it's still somewhat believable.

"Yes, Nova. Chell thought we should train here, so I followed her." Nesia adds, before she promptly turns to smack her vines into a tree near their location. Chell is quick to copy her friend's action, using her Scalchops to hack away at another tree.

"Well, that should take care of that." I muse, smirking at the confusion Nova has when she sees that Chell and Nesia are training suspiciously close to her. Well, it's not too inconspicuous of the two, but the Volcarona doesn't seem to catch on. I decide to charge my Xtranceiver for now, as it did indicate it was low on power.

"Nice save, Chell." I mouth to the Dewott once I spot her look to me expectantly out of the corner of my eye, and I see her grin happily in reply to my praise. For some reason, Nova remains oblivious to our conversation as I walk off to find some food.

"Now, hopefully I can find something for lunch." I heave a sigh of slight annoyance, before pushing past a particularly low hanging branch with a metal pot in hand. Having twelve mouths to feed that aren't your own can be a pain sometimes, but if I get to see the smiles of the team in return, then it's more than worth it.

What should I even look around for lunch? Maybe some meat again, or some berries? Hmm, I'm kind of at a loss for what to do here. I ponder the thought for a few seconds longer, before shrugging off my own indecisiveness.

"Eh, I'll see what comes my way." I mutter, looking high and low for any kinds of food that could help me feed the team. I'm fine with anything, anyways. Since the team members have such voracious appetites, I've been running out of food stock fast.

"Man, I can't even begin to imagine the amount of food I'll have to find when they all fully evolve." I smirk as I speak to myself, shaking my head with a wry grin as I humor the thought of having to find all that stuff to eat. Maybe Chell could help out…

"Well, at least the weather's nice. Not too humid, either." I grin as I look up, observing the gentle sunlight of spring shine through the trees in small beams. Also, there is a particularly large beam of said sunlight illuminating the way in front of me, revealing a group of Oran Berry bushes off to the side. Perfect.

"Do I have some sort of luck power that I'm not aware of?" I chuckle, speaking to no one in particular as I approach the berry bush and crouch down to pick the blue berries off their branches. Seriously though, do I have some sort of lucky ability?

"Eh, nah. That's just dumb." I conclude, before I begin to lick my lips at the thought of food. Each berry I make sure to check before I put in the pot, as I don't want to accidentally poison the team. Or myself, for that matter.

Picking the last of the berries off the bushes, I pick up the now slightly heavier cooking apparatus as continue looking for some more consumables. As I walk further into the forest, I begin to see and hear some traces of other life forms around me.

Bugs of both Pokemon and non-Pokemon origin are lining the bark of the tress now, with the occasional Sewaddle looking my way with an expression of hatred. I shrug and simply decide to walk away, but the glare of the Pokemon follows me.

"What?" I ask the Bug Type, which hisses at me and utters something in its native tongue before leaving quickly. Wonder why they're so worked up about seeing a human around here. Maybe someone's already been here and left their mark.

"Probably the case." I sigh, shaking my head as I continue on my way. Knowing us humans, it wouldn't be that far from the truth. I hear the rustling of bushes and the pitter patter of small feet across the forest floor, and I smile as I realize the most likely culprit behind those sounds.

I edge my way closer to a particular bush that had been rustling when I had passed it, hearing the occupants vacate it with a squeak once I get too close. Yup, definitely the Petilil playing games with me. They usually don't mean any harm, and are so darn cute to observe. I can attest to that, because Lily is one of those adorable little things.

I decide to leave some of my berries on a leaf for the little Pokemon, knowing that the Liligant that look after them have a hard enough time finding food for their young anyways. As soon as I pick up my pot and turn to leave however, I hear the leaf being dragged into the bushes. I made some Petilil happy, so that's a win for me.

As soon as I look up, I find something else of great value. An apple tree, covered with apples ripe for the picking. "Yes!" I grin, before putting down my pot and climbing the tree to get some of those juicy, delicious fruits for myself. I make sure to lock the pot before I climb up, though. Don't want any Pokemon stealing my food.

As soon as I manage to get to the top of the tree, I sit in one of the crooks of the tree and take a breather. Damn, climbing trees is hard. Well, that's good exercise at least. Always a silver lining to these things.

I then take off my hoodie, letting the article of clothing drop to the forest floor. Once it's fully settled, I pick an apple off the branches of the tree, observing it's ruby red exterior and licking my lips.

"You'll do nicely, little one." I mutter, taking a bite of the fruit and reveling in the sweet, slightly sour tang of the flesh in my mouth. "God, apples taste so good!" I moan in delight and decide to continue munching away, reducing the apple to its core and tossing the remains to the ground.

That was a nice snack. Now, time to actually get some food back for the team. As soon as I prepare to drop the first apple onto my hoodie, I suddenly hear the sound of a pot being toppled over.

"What the…" I raise an eyebrow as I speak up, hearing the frightened squeak of a Pokemon as I say so. Looking down I see a Deerling, looking quite thin and malnourished. It's trying it's best to open the pot of berries, failing due to the lock.

I quickly slide down the tree, frightening the Season Pokemon into running away from me once it registers the noise. It lets off a squeal of fear, dashing away into the thick foliage surrounding the apple tree.

"Hey, wait!" I call out to the Deerling, but I get no response from the surrounding forest around me. Looking at the general direction where the Pokemon ran off in, I sigh. I could just return to my business, but I don't intend to just yet.

It was most likely approaching me because it wanted a bite, if how it looked was any indication. And since Deerling are timid around humans to begin with, it must have been starving to have the desperation to even come near me.

"Ya hungry, little fella?" I call out to the Deerling once more, unlocking my pot and placing the lid off to one side. I simply lean against the side of the tree as I wait for the Deerling to show up again, making sure not to make any sudden moves.

Surely enough, the Season Pokemon once again shows itself as it emerges from the bushes it ran off into. "Come on, then. I won't hurt ya." I coax the Deerling, which jumps at the sound of my voice. It then darts back into the bushes, avoiding my line of sight like I could kill it just by looking at it.

However I make no moves to chase after it, and it soon shows its snout from the bush it was nestled in once more. "It's okay, it's okay. I won't hurt you, I promise." I reassure the Season Pokemon, getting it to finally approach me and sniff cautiously at my body. Upon sensing no danger from me, it moves in to eat some of my berries.

"There we go. Eat up, little one." I assure the Deerling, as it eats through my Oran Berries like crazy. It soon eats it's fill, staring at me with a grateful expression. In response to this, I smile and reach out to touch the Deerling.

However, it flinches when I do so, before turning around to leave the way it came with a surprising speed. I notice some gashes on it's hooves at it gallops away, making me raise an eyebrow. Wonder how that happened? And I wanted to be friends, too. Shrugging, I peer back into the pot the Pokemon had just eaten out of, to see that not too many berries had been consumed.

"Well, that's good." I remark, before locking the pot and resuming my quest to obtain some more apples for the team. The red fruits aren't too hard to get, as most of them are on the sturdier branches of the tree.

With a bunch of apples in my pot, I decide to call it a day and head on back to the campsite. It doesn't take me too long to find the team, as the form of Alita flying high in the sky and raining down Air Cutter waves from above is kind of hard to miss.

As soon as I enter the clearing however, I barely dodge a blast of fire aimed for the rock that was right next to me. "Woah!" I yelp, jumping out of the way and seeing a shocked and guilty Nova looking at me right after the flames subside.

"It's okay, Nova. I'm not hurt, see?" I assure the Volcarona, who utters some words in her native tongue. "I told you, I'm fine. No burns on me." I repeat myself, petting Nova by her horns and getting the Fire Moth to calm down.

Nova sighs blissfully as she melts into my ministrations, getting me to chuckle as I continue to pet her. "There. All better now?" I ask her, to which she nods happily and utter more words in her own tongue.

"Wait a sec, Nova. Let me put this on first, otherwise I won't be able to understand you." I hold up my hand to signal for the Volcarona, as I unplug my Xtranceiver from its charging port and plug it into my ear.

"Alright, there." I give Nova a thumbs-up, which gets her to repeat herself. "Thank you, Jay. You're so nice…" The Volcarona giggles as she says so, getting me to chuckle in kind to her happiness.

"I'll always be nice to you, Nova. Count on it." I grin, Nova nuzzling me with her head as she hears that. "Such a flirt, Jay!" Safia, who's noticed my little chat with Nova, smirks as she teases me.

"Ugh, no. I'm always nice. Now, get back to training, Safia." I sigh, the Zoroark grinning from ear to ear as she nods. "I hear ya, boss." She replies, returning to what she was doing as Leah shakes her head at Safia.

"Focus, sister. Jay told us to train, so that's what we should be doing." The Lucario berates Safia, who smiles as she slings an arm around Leah's shoulder. The lupine is charging up an Aura Sphere as she says that, indicating that her focus is pretty good

"Come on, sis! Nova's taking him away from you! Aren't you gonna do something about it?" The Zoroark teases her sister, who blushes as her expression conveys her surprise. The ball of aura immediately dissipates once Leah hears that, fizzling into the air around her.

"W-what do you mean by that!?" The Lucario stutters, fumbling with her words as she tries to refute Safia's accusations. "I mean that as your sister, Leah! Come on! You've gotta show Jay that you can be sexy, too!" Safia giggles as she says that, making me poke the Zoroark's forehead as I sigh.

"Safia, don't give Leah the wrong idea. She doesn't need to be sexy for me to like her." I groan, Safia still grinning like a damn Cheshire cat as she skips off. "Well, Jay. If I didn't know any better, I would assume that you are indeed flirting with these girls." Katrina speaks up, wrapping her tail around my hand.

"Am I not enough to sate your lust, Master? I could help you relieve some tension now, if you wish…" The Liepard suggests huskily, nuzzling her face against my crotch as Leah squeaks and hides her face in her hands.

"Oh, my…" Nova gasps, her own face flushed as she quickly catches onto what Katrina was implying. "Uh, not now Kat." I turn down the offer for more sex, as tempting as it seems. Katrina pouts at this, unraveling her tail from my hand.

"As you wish, Jay." She sighs, showing mock sadness in reply to my answer. In response to this cheeky move, I pat her head. "Well, you're gonna have to settle for head pats. Sound good enough?" I ask the Liepard, who smiles as she purrs at the feeling of my hand on her head.

"Very well." She goes with my suggestion, as she nuzzles my hand. Meanwhile, I boop Leah on the nose. "Achoo!" The Lucario sneezes, lifting her hands from her face to cover her nose and allowing me to see her reddened face.

"Jay, what was that for?" The lupine huffs, as she looks down at where I had touched her nose with slight annoyance. "Don't let Safia's teasing get to your head, silly. Besides, your face is way too nice to hide behind those paws." I reply simply, causing a deeper blush to overtake the already pinkish hue of her face.

"Jay, you're flattering me too much…" Leah timidly says, making me chuckle as I pat her on the head. "But I really mean it, Leah!" I stand by what I had said, causing the Lucario to smile slightly as she suddenly finds the ground much more interesting.

"Um, I'll return to my training then." Leah replies, before quickly running off to join her sister. With those two training up for now, I decide to look around and check up on everyone else. Lily and Dani are working really hard on their usage of Giga Drain, as they seem to have improved on the rate of which they're draining energy from their trees.

Draining health from your enemies is always a good method of sustain, but what's the point if they don't have any attacking moves to back that up? Seems like a waste of time to me. As such, I continue to observe the two Grass Types while trying to think about what kind of attacking moves they could use at the same time.

Hmm, I should talk them into using a ranged move. They may be able to heal themselves, but they're still quite the squishy pair of Pokemon. So, maybe something like Energy Ball? Yeah, that might be a good start. Besides, Nesia's been able to use the relatively powerful move to great effect.

"Heya, Lily. Heya, Dani." I greet the two Grass Types, who both turn to face me as they cease their draining of the tree's life force for now. "Sup, Jay?" Dani waves to me, as Lily smiles once she sees me walk towards her.

"Hello, Sir. What brings you here?" The Petilil asks, to which I grin as I sit down on the ground. "Wanting to get straight to the point, I see." I comment, Lily quickly panicking as she realizes that came out as a little offensive. Not that I mind, though.

"Oh, no, no, no! I-I didn't mean it like that!" The Grass Type tries to explain that she had no intention of being mean, which gets me to chuckle as I pat the little Petilil on the head. She's so freaking adorable, damn it! There's no way I could stay mad even if I was.

"Calm down, silly-Lily. I know you weren't trying to be mean. I was just poking fun, is all." I explain, causing Lily to pout as Dani begins to laugh at her friend's massive overreaction. And oh my god, her pout is seriously cute too.

"Dani! Don't laugh at me, you meanie!" The Petilil huffs as the Cottonee simply laughs some more. "I can't help it! Seriously, you should have seen the look on your face!" Dani giggles, continuing to poke fun at Lily liberally.

"Your pout is just like everything else about you, Lily. It's really cute." I comment, Lily's face heating up as she hears me say that. "U-um, thank you Sir. But you didn't have to sat that to make me feel better." Lily tells me in embarrassment, already getting flustered.

"Well, I only told you how I felt towards you, Lily." I reply, ruffling her leaves that are resting atop her head. "O-oh! You really do think so?" The Petilil gasps in surprise as she looks up at me, blushing even redder as she hears me say that.

"Yup! Can't say he's wrong there, Lily! You are pretty freaking cute." Dani throws in her two cents on the matter, which gets her to yelp and avert her gaze from the both of us to the ground. That in turn makes me smile, while Dani smirks.

"Anyways, I wanted to tell you that you should try and learn another move that isn't Giga Drain. Getting health back is nice, but I think you should also try dealing some damage at the same time." I explain, getting the two Grass Types to nod as they hear me out.

"Well, I guess you do have a point. But what kind of attack are we even supposed to learn?" Dani asks me, to which I continue. "Well, I think Energy Ball is a good place to start. Both of you can learn it, and it's pretty powerful. Not to mention, you have a chance of lowering your enemies' accuracy if you hit them with it." I explain, Lily nodding as she quickly understands what she should try for now.

"Yes, Sir!" The Petilil replies quickly, getting Dani to smirk my way. "I don't see why not. Let's do it!" The Cottonee adds, to which I smile at the two of them. "That's the spirit! Now to use Energy Ball, you first need to imagine your own energy flowing from your bodies and forming a ball." I instruct, Lily nodding as she quickly closes her eyes to begin concentrating.

"Right!" Dani acknowledges me, quickly concentrating at the space in front of her. They're both trying pretty hard to get this done right, and it seems to be working. A little while after they focus, I notice small wisps of green energy forming in front of them.

"It's working, you two! Stay focused!" I cheer them on, as the balls of green energy slowly get bigger. However, once they reach the size of golf balls, they quickly dissipate into thin air. "Aw..." Lily sighs sadly, Dani looking a little bummed herself.

"It's fine. No one ever got anything right on the first try. Any new move is kinds tricky to learn. I think that was pretty good for a first try." I try to cheer them up, Lily looking at me hopefully. "Really?" The Petilil asks, to which I nod.

"Yeah. You should have seen me with my magic when I was starting out. Took me weeks just to get the skull out." I chuckle, remembering all the attempts of me simply squeezing my eyes shut and grunting like I had constipation.

"Seriously?" Dani giggles, a little amused by what she had heard. "Yup. Just try again, and try to get the ball of energy this big. Once you've got that down, try getting it to form faster." I tell them, the two small Grass Types nodding in reply.

"You got it, Jay!" Dani assures me, while Lily nods in acknowledgment of my instructions. "Just remember. The more you try it, the more used to doing it you'll be." I remind them, Lily nodding with much more enthusiasm this time.

"Yes, Sir!" The Petilil replies, quickly retrying her attempt to form a usable Energy Ball attack. "Hey, that's not fair! You got a head start!" Dani huffs playfully, before she too starts concentrating to make her own Energy Ball. Well, I suppose now I could check up on some of the others.

Safia is using Shadow Ball and Shadow Claw for her own offensive. She uses Night Daze for when she gets a little closer sometimes, and she uses Night Slash when she gets into arm's reach. She seems to to prioritize ranged attacking, never really wanting to close in for a quick swipe of her Shadow Claw or her Pursuit.

Leah on the other hand is more focused on close range, opting to use Power-up Punch and Bone Rush whenever possible. She's rarely opted to use Aura Sphere, even when she was at a considerable distance from her target. She would simply rush back in with physical move, almost never resorting to Focus Blast either.

"Well, can't say their teamwork isn't on point." I muse, observing the two lupines go at it. They're really good at leveraging the strengths of each other, but they don't seem to have the best situational awareness when they're on their own. As such, I decide to cut into and give them a few pointers.

"Leah, Safia. You two have a minute?" I call out to Leah and Safia, the two of them turning to face me when they hear me address their names. "Yeah, Jay? What's up?" The Zoroark asks, Leah looking away as I approach the pair. The Lucario's probably still a mite shy due to what I had told her a while back.

"Well, I wanted to point out that you two could try and think about yourselves for a change." I reply, getting the two lupines to give me confused looks. "Wait, what do you mean by that?" Safia asks me, Leah none the wiser.

"I don't understand either, Jay. Could you explain?" The Lucario suggests, to which I gesture to them both. "It's the way you two attack your targets. I won't say you two don't look out for each other. Hell, you do that really well. Maybe a little too well, though." I explain, as the Lucario and Zoroark still aren't catching on.

"I still don't get it." The Zoroark groans, getting a little annoyed as she still can't see what I'm getting at. "Safia's always on the ranged offensive, while Leah likes things up close and personal. But when you both attacked the trees on your own, Safia stuck with her ranged moves even when she was close enough to use a physical one. As for Leah, she closed wide gaps with physical moves." I tell them, as Leah averts her gaze.

"But if you two were fighting alone, then those same tactics could mean the end for you. If Safia stuck to long range, then a physical attacker would wipe the floor with her since ranged moves require the user to charge up and aim. Same goes for Leah. If she uses physical moves to close gaps, then a ranged attacker would have a field day with her." I explain, Leah looking down guiltily as Safia has a look of shock.

"Woah, you thought of all that just by looking at us?" The Zoroark asks in surprise, to which I nod. "Well, I was watching for only a minute or so." I admit while Leah looks down, not willing to meet my gaze with her own.

"To think I hadn't thought of that before. No wonder I wasn't getting better..." The Lucario sniffs, tears starting to brim in her eyes as she says that. In response to her own self blame, I pat the lupine on the head.

"Jay?" Leah sniffs, getting me to smile warmly at her. "Listen, everyone overlooks things and makes mistakes. I sure as hell know I'm not perfect, and neither are you. That's why you asked for my help in the first place, right?" I remind her, to which the Lucario smiles as she wipes the tears from her eyes.

"Yeah! Hell, I didn't notice what Jay was talking about until he said it, so don't beat yourself up about it!" Safia adds, the Zoroark's words cheering up the Lucario as well. "Safia's right, for once. Don't feel bad. That's what I'm here for, to help you get over your problems and become stronger." I assure Leah, as Safia huffs when I say so.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" The Zoroark smirks playfully, punching me in the shoulder lightly and getting me to reel in mock pain. "Ow! That hurt my feelings!" I whine, as Leah giggles at our light banter.

"I see. Thanks for cheering me up, Jay." The Lucario speaks up, to which I shake my head. "No need for thanks, that's just part of being a good friend. Now, hurry up and try to improve your awareness. With Safia by your side, I know you can do it." I tell her, reaching out to pat her head.

"Okay. I won't let you down!" Leah nods in determination, a smile gracing her face as a blush spreads out on her cheeks while my hand rubs the top of her furry scalp. "That's the spirit. Now, I'll go check on the others, see if I can help with anything." I chuckle, the Lucario and Zoroark nodding in acknowledgment.

"And you're gonna flirt with 'em while you teach. Isn't that right, you pervert?" Safia teases me, smirking as Leah's snout immediately turns a shade of deep red. "Safia!" The Lucario yelps, embarrassed at the notion.

"Yeah, no. You're overthinking things a little too much, Safia. Now, I think you should tend to Leah. She looks like she's gonna overheat." I point out with an amused smirk, the Zoroark giggling as she sees the Lucario's flustered look and flushed face.

"Eh, she'll be fine! She's been through worse." Safia assures me jokingly, before turning around to face Leah and return to training. As soon as the Lucario shakes off her own embarrassment, I can already see both of them slowing down and thinking about their next moves whenever they get a little ways away from the target.

Meanwhile, I notice that Chell and Nesia are being quite diligent in their own training. Chell is attacking her trees with a combination of cuts from her scalchops and bursts of her Water Gun, while Nesia is firing off Leaf Storms to attack her trees, as well as using Vine Whip on the trees that she gets too close to.

Not only that, they're both paying attention to what moves they're using. Chell occasionally uses her own Water Pulse to hit the tree from time to time, before quickly rushing in to deal some easy damage with Razor Shell. She also remembers to use Ice Beam, and to use Razor Ice in tandem when needed.

Nesia is also quite wary of when she should use her Energy Ball and Vine Whip, as the former is quite useful after a few uses of the Servine's Leaf Storm. She sometimes uses her vines to close the gap between herself and her target, in order to score a hit from her Leaf Blade as well.

Overall, they're already showing quite the prowess and potential for higher level skirmishes, already making good use of their varied attacks. I smile as I watch them practice, sitting down to observe the flurry of slashing and ranged blasting of the two starter Pokemon. They grow up so fast…

"Lily!" Dani suddenly shouts, which makes me quickly turn around to see a group of Durant trying to get away with Lily. She's trapped and wrapped up in leaves atop one of the large ants, while the Cottonee is trying to beat them with Razor Leaf.

"Dani! Help me, please!" Lily cries out, fearful for her life. The ants, seeming a little pissed off, try to attack the floating Grass Type. However, she's too high up for them to hit. "Don't worry, Lily! I won't let them hurt you!" The Cottonee yells, firing off Razor Leaf at the Durant. Her attacks aren't doing much damage to them, though. The leaves are just bouncing off the hides of the ants, pissing them off even more.

"I gotcha!" I yell, running over and plucking the Petilil from the back of the Durant that was carrying her. However, I suddenly trip over one of the ants I was running from. Crap this is bad! One of the Durant growls and tries to snap it's jaws around my leg, but a quick snap from a vine forces it to withdraw.

"Master!" Nesia calls to me, as the rest of the team rush over to help out. "Hey, everyone. You made it." I grin, before turning to the Durant group. "Now, then. You tried to hurt our friend, so we'll have some vengeance now." I smirk darkly, as the team slowly closes in, glares of anger on their faces.

"I'm sorry in advance for this." Leah apologizes, for what she's about to do isn't very much fair. The Durant are panicking as they try to flee, but to no avail as Cleo and Dani throw sticky cotton and hold them in place.

"Now, where do y'all think yer goin?" The Flaafy smirks, as I crack my knuckles and close in. Nova also approaches, flaming scales falling from her body. And so, for the next couple of minutes, the agonizing screams of several Durant echoed throughout the forest.

 **Author's Note: Heya, all! It's the 69th chapter of Pokemon with humans this time, and you know how the number 69 is important to sexual culture! (Wink wink, nudge nudge) So, to commemorate this occasion, I've decided to ask all of you. I have no idea how to celebrate this, and I'd like your opinions. Message me, and I'll pick the one I like the most! You all only have until Wednesday to tell me about your ideas, though! Sorry, but I'm pressed for time with University stuff. Start typing, good people!**

 **Lots of thanks,**

 **Roccer**

 **List Of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	70. Chapter 70

Chapter 70

[Jay]

"Ugh, fucking Durant. Attacking us like that..." Alita growls, watching me deposit the last of the charred, beaten and bruised ant bodies into the bushes around us. None of them were dead, mind you. We just, uh... beat the crap out of them until they fainted. Yeah.

"I'm so sorry, Lily. If only I wasn't so damn weak...!" Dani tears up and curses herself for not being able to help her friend out when she needed it, the Petilil looking at the Cottonee with an expression of sorrow and sympathy as she hears those words.

"Dani, I'm sorry too. If I had been paying more attention, I would not have been caught off guard like that..." Lily apologizes to Dani, putting her head against the Cottonee in a show of compassion and forgiveness as she too begins to cry softly.

"Come on. None of that was your fault." I speak up, gently wrapping the two remorseful Grass Types into a hug, cradling them within the warmth of my arms. "But I couldn't do anything, Jay! I thought I would lose her, just like how I lost my parents! I... Damn it, I...!" Dani growls, expressing much hatred towards her own inability to act against those who caused Lily harm.

"Listen, I know losing a loved one is hard to bear. But that's why I fight, and work towards my goal. I do it so that no one ever has to go through that ever again, myself included." I soothe the Cottonee, who is now letting tears fall down her cheeks. These two sure have experienced some shit, huh?

"I'm pretty weak, huh? First I can't save my parents, and now I can't even save my own friend from getting kidnapped." Dani chuckles sadly, Lily looking to the Cottonee with a look of guilt. "I'm sorry I made you feel that way, Dani. I was weak, so I couldn't defend myself. I'm so sorry..." The Petilil sniffs, to which I gently rub their heads and wipe their tears away.

"You aren't weak. Not at all." I shake my head in disagreement of her own self loathing, getting the Cottonee to look at me with sorrow. "You don't need to sugarcoat it, Jay. I've always been weak, while everyone else gets better all the time." Dani smiles sadly, trying to laugh it off as some sort of sick joke.

"I'm not strong enough to save anyone, Jay! I couldn't even stop those Durant, while Nova and Leah dealt with them so easily. I'm so useless..." Dani adds as she begins to cry, making me realize just how deep the loss of her loved ones had scarred her.

She's so troubled by what she had lost, that it's clouded her judgement. I had initially thought of her as a confident little fluff ball, but that could not have been further from the truth. Her despair, her agony, her doubt... It's all finally showing through for me to see, as her true feelings emerge.

"Dani..." I whisper, coming close to crying out of heartache myself. It's like Dani's stabbing her own heart, and I'm not about to let that continue. Especially not my own friends, damn it! I care too much about them to let them fall into despair.

"No, that's not it!" I yell all of a sudden, catching Dani and Lily by surprise. "What?" Dani eyes me dumbly, as if she wasn't believing of what I had said. Lily also looks to me in shock, wide eyed as I continue. The team is quite surprised by my sudden outburst, as they look to me with worry.

"Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, worried as I hold up a hand to silence her. "Hold on, kiddo. I'm trying to talk some sense into Dani." I tell the worried Pokemon, as the team calm down a little and observe my process of trying to get the Cottonee to see past her supposed weakness.

"You aren't weak! You never were, and you sure as hell aren't ever going to be!" I shout at them, trying to get them to see reason. "Sir..." Lily whispers as she bears witness to a fiery side of me, desperate to protect all that I held dear.

"If you truly were weak, you would have given up when you were traded to those perverted rich kids! If you were weak, you would have simply given up on training! Did you quit!? Hell no! In fact, you have shown so much improvement!" I point out, as Dani look to me in shock.

"You haven't only helped me fight off wild Pokemon, you've also learned new moves! You wouldn't have done any of those things if you truly had given up! Or maybe you aren't giving up, and it's because of something else. Right?" I start to calm down, asking the Cottonee how she truly felt about her most recent show of weakness.

It takes a while for her to respond, and what she says is what I had suspected. "You're right. It's because I'm... I'm so angry! I'm so angry that I couldn't help Lily, even though I worked so fucking hard!" The Cottonee shouts, before tears form in her eyes and she starts to cry anew.

"It's not fair, damn it! Why is everyone so strong so that they can kick us around, and we can't even fight back even if we try! Why!?" Dani shouts, before she completely gives up on her rant and buries her head in my chest, crying tears of frustration and defeat.

"There, there. I'm here for you, Dani." I assure the mentally broken and frustrated Cottonee, soothing her with some patting from my hand as she cries without holding anything back. The team look on as I try to comfort the Grass Type, Lily especially worried for her friend.

Soon enough the sobbing turns to sniffling, and I take this time to try and reason with Dani. "Listen, I know how being powerless feels. You won't get stronger straight away and I know relying on someone to save you isn't the best feeling in the world, so that's why I want to help you. I want to make sure you never have to feel powerless ever again." I tell the Cottonee, who looks to me with puffy, reddened eyes.

"Jay, I..." Dani chokes, unable to say much as I try my best to comfort her. "I used to be weak, too. A lot of other people would pick on me, just because they were stronger. So I worked hard, and made sure I could win against them all." I continue, using my finger to gently wipe her tears from her cheeks.

"Now, it's your turn. Take that anger you have for your weakness and that feeling of frustration, and use it to fuel your own willpower. Stay focused, and never forget why you fight. That, in my opinion, is the key to winning against not only enemies like those Durant, but also much stronger foes as well." I finish, as Dani smiles through her sniffling as she hears me say that.

"Thanks, Jay. Thank you so much..." Dani cries, latching onto me as lets a few more tears fall from her face. However, these aren't the same tears of frustration and sadness I had seen earlier. These are happy tears. Perhaps Dani has never had someone to talk to besides Lily that saw her own frustrations.

"I believe in you, Dani. Even if no one else does, I still will." I add, patting the Cottonee on the head as Lily nods at my words. "I believe in you too, Dani! That's why I want you to get stronger with me!" The Petilil speaks up, a brave look in her eyes as she talks to the Cottonee.

Nodding, Dani wipes her own tears away with her leaves and hugs her friend with her leafy appendages. "Sure thing, Lily! Let's work hard and get stronger together!" Dani nods, to which I chuckle as they make nice to each other. The rest of the team is smiling as well, sharing looks of relief.

"Now that you've gotten a goal to chase, how about some lunch first? I got some apples from the nearby trees that taste really good." I suggest, Chell and Dani perking up at the mention of food. "Really!? I want some!" Dani quickly shouts, Chell eyeing my pot with a look of hunger.

"Me too! I want some too, Mister Jay!" The Dewott shouts eagerly, as Nesia shakes her head. "Chell is so impatient." The Servine comments, as Katrina giggles at the antics of the two Pokemon. "Hey! Don't leave me out, damn it!" Alita butts in, already next to the pot as she tries to open it.

"Don't worry, Ali. I'm not gonna leave you outta some grub." I chuckle, lifting the lid of the container and letting the Unfezant peek at the contents of the metallic pot. Once the lid is off, Chell immediately takes a particularly big apple and bites into it, letting the juices flow down her chin.

"Sho good! Fanks Mishtr Jay!" The Dewott speaks with her mouth full, expressing her gratitude with a thankful glance in my direction as I shake my head at the energetic starter. "Seriously, kiddo. Don't talk while you're eating. It's kinda gross." I laugh, before biting into my own apple.

"Yeah, Chell! Geez, could you not spit bits of fruit everywhere!?" Alita adds, pecking at some Oran Berries right after her little jab at her friend's less that stellar eating practices. And I thought the Dewott would be more civilized that how she's acting right now, as Chell is chewing with her cheeks puffing out. Eh, maybe when she evolves.

"Ali's right, kiddo. Besides, whatever you're trying to say will end up being a mouthful, anyways." I joke, making Chell's form shake with laughter as Alita glares daggers at me. "Seriously!? You just had to say that, didn't you!?" The Unfezant growls, getting me to grin as she says that.

"Of course, duh. It's my job as a pun master." I reply, as if it were the most natural thing to do. "Heh, that wasn't half bad." Cleo snorts as she hears that, while Nesia simply rolls her eyes. Her smile however, informs me that she is quite amused by my pun.

"You're such a dumbass, Jay." Belladonna sighs, to which I simply shrug as I grab my ketchup bottle from my pocket and take a swig. "Eh, no harm in a little pun every now and then." I chuckle in reply, getting Alita to sigh in exasperation.

"Was that another pun, you idiot?" She asks, getting me to grin cheekily. "I dunno. What do you think?" I say in return, which ticks off the Unfezant even more as she smacks me upside the head with her wing. "Damn it, you idiot!" She fumes, making me wince as I rub my damaged head area.

"Heh, worth it." I add, the grin never leaving my face as I eye the angry Unfezant. This gets a few snickers out of everyone else, no one commenting as they're a little preoccupied with eating. Safia's trying to hold her laughter the hardest, evidenced by the shaking of her torso as Leah sighs with a shake of her head.

Nesia is eating her apple in small bites, chewing quickly as she eats her fill. Nova, as well as Taylor and Belladonna are all going to town on their apples, their mandibles making short work of the juicy flesh of the red fruits. The small crunches that result from their eating sounds oddly nice.

Cleo is just taking chunk after chunk out of her apple with her herbivore teeth, while Katrina is having only a little difficulty with her canines when it comes to eating. Leah and Safia are better off than the Liepard is, probably because they have prior experience eating stuff like this.

"Um, Sir, could you help us?" I suddenly hear Lily ask as I feel a small body make contact with my back, which makes me turn around to address the Petilil. "Sure thing, Lily. What's the problem?" I ask her, to which she gestures to the apples in front of her. Dani is trying to bite into it, but she seems to have no shortage of difficulty doing so.

"Ugh, come on! Damn it, these things are hard to eat..." I hear Alita curse to my right, and I turn to see her struggling to enjoy her share of apples as well. Her beak is simply making small gouges along the skin of the fruit, unable to truly pierce it and wring free the flesh within.

Seeing the Unfezant struggle with something I find so easy, I can't help but chuckle. "Okay, I'll help out. Now, let me get something first." I nod to Lily, before reaching into my bag to fish out a knife. Grabbing an apple, I carve into it and split it up into smaller wedges.

"There. This should help, now that you have something easier to bite into." I speaks to Lily, handing her, as well as Dani and Alita a piece of the divided apple. "Thank you, Sir!" Lily smiles, before taking a big bite out of her given slice.

"Mmm!" Lily cries in muffled delight, savoring the taste of sweet, crunchy and sour in her mouth as she chews happily. "Is it really that good? It's just an apple." Dani asks no one in particular, eyeing the Petilil with an amused look. In response to her comment, I shrug.

"Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it." I reply, the Cottonee nodding in response as she looks to her food. "Eh, true." She admits, taking a nibble from her apple slice. Surely enough, her eyes widen and she dives into her meal as she bites through the flesh again and again.

"Heh, told ya." I say as Dani chews like no tomorrow, trying to shove as much of the food as she can into her mouth. Meanwhile, Alita is also pecking at her apple slice, a little too focused right now to look my way as she eats in silence.

Now that everyone's happy, I decide to sit down next to the small Grass Types and resume my own eating. As I bite into my apple, I find that it tastes a little more sour than when I had first taken a chunk out of it. Looking down, I sigh when I see that the effects of oxidation had already taken hold of the exposed flesh.

"Well, crap." I mumble, before biting away the affected area as quickly as possible. Guess I took a little too long in preparing those apples for Lily and Dani back there, huh? Eh, not that important. The thing's still edible, and I made Lily and Dani pretty happy. A win's a win.

"Hello, Jay. I hope you don't mind me coming over here." I hear the voice of a certain Lucario behind me, and I turn around to see her sitting next to me. Safia is also close to her, grinning widely as she eyes the both of us. "Oh, hello Leah, Safia. What brings you here?" I ask them, the Zoroark's grin growing cheeky as she gestures to her sister.

"Well, it's because my dear sister here wants to talk to you about something." Safia replies, Leah already looking a little nervous as she hears what her sister has to say. "Heh, come on sis! No need to be shy, just ask him!" Safia grins cheekily, as the other lupine nervously fidgets in place.

"W-well, I wanted to eat with you, seeing as how... we're partners now. I-I would like some advice on how I can get stronger." Leah speaks up, her timidity lowering the volume of what she's saying as her cheeks flush a little from embarrassment. Safia giggles in light of Leah's shame, making me sigh as I realize what's going on. Leah's being set up.

"Come on, now. There's no need to just randomly make up an excuse if you wanna talk. Just say you wanna talk." I assure the Lucario, whose face flushes even more as she begins to panic. "That wasn't an excuse, I swear!" Leah yelps, to which I shrug and gesture to the grass next to me. Meanwhile, Safia and Dani start laughing at Leah's flustered reactions.

"He's right, Leah. He'll talk to anyone." Dani smirks, making me eye the Cottonee with a raised eyebrow. "And what's that supposed to mean?" I question, Safia shrugging in reply. "Eh, maybe she's implying that you just have low standards." She adds, making me frown in mock sadness.

"Ow, that hurt. Anyways, take a seat first. No sense in talking if you're uncomfortable, right?" I suggest, Leah quickly nodding as she takes a seat rather quickly. She's still a little flustered, but other than that her cheeks are already starting to lose some of their color as she calms down.

"Safia, you joining?" I ask the snickering Zoroark, who shrugs as she plops her ass down. "Eh, sure. I don't have much else to do now, anyways." She replies, opting to sit next to Leah as she bites into another apple.

"So, how's training going so far?" I ask the two lupines, Leah jumping a bit as she hears me say that. "O-oh! It's been good so far. I've tried using my Aura Sphere more often..." Leah speaks up, trailing off as she doesn't really know what else to tell me. That, and she seems to be a little timid when it comes to interacting with me in general.

"Well, I guess what she said is all true. There isn't much else she's been practicing since you told her she should balance out her attacks." Safia smirks, which causes Leah to nod as she eyes the Zoroark with a small smile. Well, at least Safia can be serious at times.

"Well, that's good to hear." I smile in kind as I nod to Leah and Safia, the former smiling and blushing as she receives the praise, while the Zoroark simply waves dismissively. "If Leah wants to get tougher, then I'll do the same with her. No sense if I can't protect her, right?" The Zoroark reasons, seemingly more to herself than me.

"I never said you had to explain yourself, Safia. I'm just glad to know you've been helping Leah out." I decide to try and bait out a reaction, which Safia quickly takes the bait and experiences a mood shift. Her gaze averts mine and focuses on Leah, while her cheeks flush a little.

"I knew that." She coughs and quickly recovers from her sudden shift in demeanor, while I simply chuckle as I watch her. For such a nonchalant outlook, she's really dedicated where it counts, eh? However, my eyes quickly spy some fresh wounds on the Zoroark's arms.

"Safia, where did those come from?" I ask her, gesturing to the multitude of shallow gashes on her arms. They're not too serious looking, but they should at least be hurting somewhat. In reply, the Zoroark averts her gaze and folds her arms in order to hide the injuries she's sustained.

"Woah, what even caused those?" Dani asks, now in the air to get a closer look at the injuries. "Safia, What happened to you? Don't they hurt?" Lily asks the Zoroark, worry etched onto her face as she looks at the cuts from where she is. In response however, Safia pulls her arms away from us.

"It's nothing, I'm fine. Just got hurt when I hit those trees, is all." Safia denies, although she rubs her arms uncomfortably when I mention her wounded arms. Leah looks to her friend with worry, her eyes showing no shortage of concern for Safia. It's almost like she's seen this before...

"Anyhow, can't let those go untreated." I speak up, pulling a Potion out of my bag. "Jay? What's that for?" The Zoroark asks, to which I point to her injuries. "They're for those cuts on your arms. They might get infected, so I'll try my best to patch those up." I tell her, holding up the bottle of healing liquid.

"No thanks, Jay. I told you, I'm fine." Safia growls a little defensively, glaring at me as she holds her wounded arms. "Safia, let him help you. He already promised to, so you can trust him." Leah tries to coax her sister into letting me help her out, only to be met with a glare from the Zoroark.

"I'm sorry, Leah. I just don't trust him to help me with this." Safia replies, to which Leah glares at her sister and clasps Safia's paws in her own. "You may not trust him yet, but I do. Give him a chance, sister. Please, do this for me. I worry, Safia." Leah begs her sister, who eyes her sister with reluctance in return.

"Don't worry, you can trust him!" Lily assures Safia, nodding in agreement to Leah's words as she tries to reason with the Zoroark's distrust. "Lily's right, You know. He's not the best guy you could have around, but you can trust this moron either way." Dani adds, snickering at me as I frown. She didn't have to shit on me to prove her point, dang it...

"Ugh, fine." Safia finally says after a while of thinking, holding out her arms for me to see. "Just make it quick, Jay." She speaks to me reluctantly, getting me to nod as I spray the liquid onto her affected limbs. She winces in pain due to the sudden increase in healing that her arms are experiencing, but she perseveres nonetheless.

"That's it. Now, just let the stuff work it's magic." I soothe, watching the cuts slowly knit themselves back together, forming fur and flesh where red gashes once were. Leah eyes the work of the Potion with interest, as if she's watching magic happen. Even Safia sees to be mildly impressed. Once they're fully healed, I smile at my work and put the now half empty potion away.

"There, they're healed. Happy now?" Safia grunts as she glares at me, which gets me to nod. "Yeah. I can't bear to see anyone hurting, especially those I care about. So thanks, Safia. Thanks for letting me help you." I reply, the Zoroark's expression softening at my response to her question.

"Sure thing, Jay." Safia nods my way, Leah showing a soft smile at the Zoroark starting to warm up to me. "If you have anything else that's bothering you, don't hesitate to tell me. You don't have to face any problem alone, because you've got people like me and Leah around you." I remind her, said Lucario smiling at me as I say so.

"I'll keep that in mind." The Zoroark replies, before getting up to leave. As she leaves, I see that she seems to be conflicted at what I had said. "Thank you Jay, for helping Safia with her cuts." Leah thanks me, to which I smile and pat the Lucario on the head.

"That's what friends do for each other, Leah." I reply, Dani smirking as she hears that. "Or are you just trying to get her to like you more, you pervert?" The Cottonee asks me teasingly, to which I sigh. "Jay? Are you trying to s-seduce me?" Leah timidly asks me, getting me to shake my head.

"No, I'm not trying to seduce you. I'm just doing what I think is right." I reply, shaking my head. Just count on Dani to spread the wrong ideas. Safia's cuts seemed a little off to me, though. Some of those were already scarring over, while others were pretty fresh, if the blood leaking from them was any indication. There are a few things I could assume, but Leah gave me a rather large hint.

"Leah, could you tell me if Safia cuts herself?" I ask the Lucario, who eyes me with shock when I ask her the question. "How did you know?" Leah gasps, making me look to her with a serious expression. "Sir?" Lily questions, while Dani looks at me weirdly.

"Wait, how would you know?" The Grass Types asks, getting me to gesture to Safia. "Well, those cuts were really strange. Some were old, and some were new. But, the one thing that was the same about them was that they were of the same width and depth. However, your reaction to me noticing her cuts was the largest giveaway." I explain, Leah sighing as she nods.

"She's been cutting herself before she even met me. She told me that it was her way of relieving some of the pain inside her heart, after her own kin had abandoned her." The Lucario explains, getting me to look to the Zoroark that's now sitting down and eating her apple with a blank stare.

"Kinda like you, right? Didn't you leave your family to train alone?" I ask the lupine, who nods with a slightly sad smile. "Yes, I did. However, I hadn't expected my parents to pass away during a Scolipede attack on our pack." Leah sniffs, her smile fading as she begins to cry softly.

"I'm sorry for making you remember that, Leah." I soothe, as I wrap the teary eyed Lucario into my arms and press her head against my chest gently. "Why did they have to die, Jay? It's not fair..." Leah sobs, my hoodie having more than enough tear soaking ability to help her as I pat her back.

"Leah..." Lily sniffs, patting the lupine on the back with her leaves to try and comfort her the best she can. Dani watches from her spot in the air, although I can feel the sympathy and pity oozing from the two. They do share similar backstories, after all.

"It's okay to cry, Leah." I whisper, Leah crying a little more openly now as she lets loose her own sorrow and frustrations. Soon, her own sadness dissolves into sniffling and the occasional whimper again. "Feeling better?" I ask the Lucario, who affirms my question with a nod.

"Mmm hmm. Thanks for listening, everyone. Safia's the only person I've ever told this story to so far." Leah smiles softly, while I wipe the tear stains from her reddened eyes. "So, you left out of anger after you realized they died?" I ask her, to which she solemnly nods.

"Yes. I decided that if the pack could not protect my family, I would not entrust them with my own life." The Lucario spits, anger bubbling up within her tone and facial expression as she says so. In response, I nod as I think back to when my dad had sacrificed himself to save my skin.

"My father's last words to me were that he wanted me to get stronger, and so I acted on those words. When those people caught Safia and I, I thought I'd never be able to fulfill my father's wishes." She continues her story, before looking to me and smiling.

"However, you came along and saved the both of us. For that, I can't thank you enough." Leah finishes, blushing as her smile makes me smile at her in kind. I can't really say much to the cute expression that the lupine is making, which causes me to simply pet her on the head in reply.

"Oh no, I've been rambling again!" Leah suddenly yelps, lowering her gaze in embarrassment as she waves her hands around in a panic. "I'm sorry, Jay! I shouldn't have said so much..." The Lucario apologizes profusely, to which I chuckle at her own flustered state of being.

"Calm down, Leah. I don't mind you talking to me at all. If anything, seeing this side of you is pretty nice." I grin, getting Leah to look at me apprehensively. "You're just saying that..." The lupine mutters, making me sigh as I shake my head.

"Nah, talking to someone and hearing them talk is always nice." Dani agrees, Lily nodding as well to show her agreement. "Yeah! It's nice talking to a friend!" The Petilil adds, to which I grin and gesture to the two small Grass Types.

"You're so timid and shy all the time, I never get to talk to you much. I get to know you better, even if I'm just listening." I explain my reasoning, Leah blushing as she hears me out. "Well, if you say so..." The Lucario trails off, smiling softly as she looks into my eyes and her blush deepens.

"You know what else, Leah? I've decided that I like this side of you." I add, which causes Leah to let off an 'eep' as she hides her face in her paws, unable to take the compliment I gave her without having her face flushing a darker red than it already is.

"Sir, you're embarrassing her!" Lily scolds me, while Dani simply snickers at Leah's reaction to my compliment. "That reaction is so priceless!" The Cottonee laughs, as I smile along with her. "Yeah. It's im-paw-sible to resist teasing her." I chuckle, Leah groaning in her flustered state as Lily sighs.

"Quite the flirt as usual, Jay." Katrina enters the conversation, giggling as she sees Leah's embarrassment. "For the record, that's how I always talk around you too Kat." I deadpan, before I smile and gently hold on the Liepard's tail with my hand.

"Jay?" Katrina gasps, before her surprise turns into a smile as she wraps the tip of her tail around my hand while her eyes meet mine lovingly. "I love you so much, Kat. You know that?" I ask the feline, who giggles as she nuzzles my arm.

"I know, Jay. And I love you immensely as well." She replies, to which I lean down and kiss her full on the lips. As Katrina starts to return the gesture with her tongue, I hear Leah gasp in shock from behind me. Smirking, I kiss the Liepard for a few more seconds before I pull away, a string of saliva connecting our lips.

"Enjoying the show, Leah?" I grin cheekily, Katrina eyeing the Lucario as she grins like a Cheshire cat. Which is pretty ironic, considering how she is a cat. "J-Jay!" Leah yelps, flustered and in disbelief as she quickly makes haste to join Safia and cool off.

"Heh, that was fun." I smirk, Katrina nodding in agreement as her form shakes with mirth. "I couldn't agree more, Master." The Liepard replies, while she also gets a kick out of teasing the timid Lucario. Lily is blushing red as well, averting her gaze from mine as Dani looks away.

"Hey now, save the Master talk for the bedroom, alright? I'd prefer you to mewl that to me when I'm fucking you silly, Kat." I whisper huskily into her ear, Katrina blushing as I suggest that to her. Lily and Dani seem to be a little confused as to what I'm saying, having not heard me.

"Jay, you tease. You're making me wetter as we speak..." Katrina breathes, her form shivering slightly as she replies. "Already? Geez, save that for later." I scold her playfully, booping her on the nose as I say so. She's been so horny ever since she's got it the first time, it's just absurd.

"Hello, Jay." I hear Nova's voice this time, getting me to turn around to see the Volcarona behind me. She's using her wings to remain in the air by herself, as indicated by the appendages flapping and the gentle wind emanating from her.

"Heya, Nova. What brings you here?" I ask the Volcarona, smiling as she lands next to me. "Oh! Hello, Nova!" Lily smiles brightly at the Fire Moth Pokemon, as Dani smiles and nods in Nova's direction. "Hey, Nova." The Cottonee greets the Fire and Bug Type, who smiles in kind at the two.

"Hello, Lily and Dani. It is nice to see you two here as well." Nova greets the two herself, showing no shortage of friendliness to them. Wait, what? Weren't Dani and Lily avoiding Nova just yesterday? What the heck happened between them?

"Since when were you so friendly with Nova?" I ask Lily and Dani, the former gesturing to the Volcarona after I ask that. "Oh! Well, Nova approached us first. She wanted to talk to us, and I did. Even though Dani wasn't too happy about it." She explains, the Cottonee pouting as Lily says so.

"Hey, come on! She shoots fire, and we're weak to it! Not to mention our past with fire..." The Cottonee trails off, frowning as Lily also remembers what had happened to her in the past. She's already tearing up, to which Nova and I look to them with concern.

"Hey, now. It's gonna be fine." I speak up, Nova nodding as she wraps them both in her wings, trying her best to comfort them. "Jay is right. Please, don't cry. It's all in the past." The Volcarona soothes them, using her wings to generate a small amount of heat. It's not enough to burn anything, far from it. It's actually a gentle, relaxing warmth.

"Thanks, Nova." Dani nods to the Fire Moth Pokemon, making herself comfortable in the warmth of the winged insect. Lily says nothing, simply opting to make herself at home as she sniffles. "There, there. All shall be well." Nova whispers to the saddened Petilil, as I smile warmly at her.

"Thanks for the help, Nova." I thank the large insect as Lily starts to calm down, who smiles my way in response. "I was simply trying to copy what you would have done in such a situation." The Volcarona replies, to which I rub her horns with my hand as I chuckle.

"Glad to hear that you learned something from me. Not that I have much to teach you, but still." I joke, Nova frowning once she hears me say that. "That isn't true at all, Jay! You're so kind, and you always know what to do when you talk to the others! Not to mention I need to improve my battling skills! I have so much to learn from you!" Nova retorts, making me grin as I look her way.

"Well, I could give you suggestions regarding your battling skills, but you're gonna have to learn how to use moves and battle with persistence and repeated tries." I remind her, as Dani floats up to address the kind Fire Moth Pokemon.

"Don't worry about it! If I can do it, so can you! Besides, Jay's not the kind of guy to just give up on ya after a couple fails." The Cottonee throws her two cents in on the matter, the Volcarona nodding as she smiles anew.

"That may be true, but I still need you to give me suggestions Jay. With your help, I am certain that I will become stronger." Nova replies, making me smile at her warmly as she says that. "Sure thing, Nova. I'll be sure to help you with those tips." I promise her, Nova nodding in reply.

"Then I shall hold you to that, then." She giggles, as Dani smirks at how well we're getting along. "Alright, everyone. Let's finish lunch and get back to training, okay?" I suggest, Lily nodding as she peeks her head out from the winged embrace of the Fire Moth.

"Okay, Sir!" She replies, giggling as I wipe the tears from her face. "Yeah, yeah. You got it, Jay." Dani adds, making me grin as I poke the Cottonee on the cheek. "Hey! Not cool!" Dani retorts playfully, smacking me with her leaves. "I understand, Jay." Nova replies, giggling at our antics. However, I fail to realize the thinking face Lily's making, or the subsequent smile that she sports.

Author's Note: And that's the end of this week's chapter, folks! Sorry I couldn't deliver on the 69 surprise. I got way too caught up in my work this week to do so. College questions, worries about the future, all that scary shit. Also really wanted to make this scene canonical with this story, so that was something else I was considering. So, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll see if I can't make another surprise this week. Sorry for the false hope, guys.

Roccer

List of Pokemon:

-Chell (Dewott)

-Nesia (Servine)

-Alita (Unfezant)

-Katrina (Liepard)

-Lily (Petilil)

-Dani (Cottonee)

-Cleo (Flaafy)

-Nova (Volcarona)

-Leah (Lucario)

-Safia (Zoroark)

-Taylor (Sewaddle)

-Belladonna (Venipede)


	71. Chapter (?)

Chapter 69 Celebration!

[Third Person POV]

We see Jay just lying on his back, being a lazy ass as usual. He's just minding his own business, drinking from his favorite ketchup bottle as he stares at the sky. "God, I'm bored as fuck." The hoodie clad teenager groans, rolling onto his side and continuing his unproductive slouch.

That's how he would have spent the rest of his time, until he hears a voice calling out to him from behind. "Um, Mister Jay? I have something I want you to see..." Jay sighs, clearly recognizing the voice to be that of his favorite Dewott, Chell. She sounds to be a little nervous, though.

Not one to let his starter down, he rolls over to face her. "Yeah, kiddo? What's going-" Jay starts, before the rest of his sentence dies in his throat. Before him, he sees Chell, as well as Nesia and Katrina to all be in maid outfits.

Chell had a simple frilly dress on, her paws placed on the front of her white apron nervously. She has a black dress on, with a white frilly headpiece atop her furry head. She's dressed in a long sleeved maid's dress, with white frills coming out of the wrist area.

Her outfit also has an open top area, which accentuates her blue fur and small mounds due to the black and white colors surrounding her chest area and doesn't really leave much to the imagination. As she puts her paws together nervously, her whiskers twitch and she averts her gaze from her Trainer's.

Katrina is in her anthro form, and she is dressed in a purely black maid's outfit with white bows lining said dress. She has a white choker around her neck, shaped in a bow facing the front which is more than enough to make the feline look attractive. She's also got a pair of fake glasses on.

Her black top is also open, allowing Jay to see her cleavage in it's furry glory. She has a sultry grin on her face, her wrists and head lined with frills of white. She's also got black stockings on, which brings out the beauty of her legs as she winks at the lazy teenager.

Nesia has a maid's dress on as well, her tail poking out from behind her dress. She has an apron on as well, although it covers her upper body area as well. Her maid dress is black in color, and she has frills lining her wrists, and her head. She's got a red choker around her neck, contrasting with her green coloration and making her appear quite cute as she averts her gaze, a blush painting her face as well.

"S-so, like what you see Mister Jay?" Chell stutters as she asks me timidly, Nesia stealing glances at me every now and then. Katrina simply shakes her head and smiles at the two inexperienced Pokemon, and uses her palm to adjust her glasses in a dainty manner.

"What she is attempting to say, is that we shall be serving you as your personal maids today. We shall tend to your every demand, Master. As long as you give us the order, we shall not refuse you." Katrina explains to Jay, who is at a loss for words.

"Um, uh…" He utters, not able to collect his thoughts into a coherent sentence. "But first, would you care for a spot of tea, Master?" The feline asks Jay, to which he can only nod. Smiling, Katrina claps her hands together, and Nesia produces a tray with a teacup on it, while Chell holds up a teapot.

"Now, you two. Pour your Master some tea, and make it quick." Katrina orders the two flustered Pokemon, who nod quickly and walk over to Jay's side, the teenager now in a sitting position as he is stunned into silence by the utterly adorable display before him.

Chell smiles nervously at her temporary Master, before pouring him tea into the teacup that Nesia had produced. Nesia then balances the trap with her hands, and places it onto the ground before him. "Your tea, Master." The Servine says, utterly embarrassed by what she is doing.

"God, the three of you look so sexy right now..." Jay speaks his thoughts aloud, causing the two starter Pokemon to gain a deeper blush on their faces while Katrina simply giggles at the compliment. The feline seems to be enjoying herself, at least.

"Why thank you, Master. As you personal maids, we have taken every precaution to ensure that we are as pleasing to you eyes as we can possibly be." She assures him, while Jay takes a sip from his warm tea. To him, it tastes surprisingly nice and relaxing, even on a warm spring day.

The drink also helps the flustered teenager to collect his thoughts, as he takes another sip and calms himself down. "Could the three of you sit near me, then?" Jay asks the maids assembled before him, the Liepard giggling as she hears the question.

"There is no need to ask for permission, dearest Master. We are here to serve you." She assures him, taking slow and deliberate steps to ensure that her legs and bust are slightly jiggling as she walks toward him. She also makes sure that Jay is staring at her bust and ample behind as she sits down.

"Okay, Mister Jay." Chell complies with her Trainer's request, sitting next to him. "As you wish, Master." Nesia adds, walking over to the teenager and sitting next to him as well. Although the Servine and Dewott are still rather nervous, their hesitation is starting to fade.

Jay, now much calmer than before, takes his time admiring the maids before him. Chell is cute looking enough, blushing slightly as she fiddles with her sleeves and glances at him nervously. Nesia is also quite adorable as well, the Servine now opting to place her hands over her own apron.

Jay finishes the drink quickly, to which Chell holds up the teapot with both her paws. "Want some more tea, Mister Jay?" She asks him, to which he nods and holds up his teacup. "Sure thing, kiddo." He nods to the Water Type, who nods as she pours him another cup.

"I have to say, the three of you look surprisingly cute in maid outfits." Jay comments as he sips his tea, Katrina, Chell and Nesia all blushing as they hear what he has to say. "Thank you for the compliment, Master. I'm sure these two also appreciate your kind words." Katrina replies, Chell and Nesia nodding in confirmation of the Liepard's remark.

As soon as Jay finishes his second cup however, he begins to feel a little heated. His pants begin to feel a little too tight as his face begins to flush, and his breathing quickens. Seeing his reaction, Katrina smiles a little deviously. Her plan is falling into place perfectly, as she watches the tent pitching in her Trainer's pants due to the sneaky addition of some aphrodisiacs to the tea.

"Master, it would seem that you have an issue with your clothing." The Liepard purrs, eyeing his member with hunger before looking into his eyes. "Would you like us to help… relieve you of it?" She accentuates the last few words, making sure that Jay has a clear view of her breasts from where he is.

"You sure about this, though?" Jay asks, looking to Chell and Nesia for confirmation. "Don't worry, Mister Jay. We're your maids, so we don't mind obeying your orders..." Chell trails off, clearly embarrassed about this, but not against it.

"Yes, Master. We have no problem doing as you wish." Nesia reassures her Trainer, blushing just as red as Chell is. Katrina, seeing that the other two maids have no qualms with servicing Jay, reaches for his pants. She then pulls the shorts down, revealing his erection for all to see.

"It's so big..." Chell gasps, her blush now even deeper than before as she eyes Jay's throbbing dick, complete with a bead of precum leaking from the slit atop it's head. "Master's thing smells so strong..." Nesia breathes, face now even more flushed than before.

"Oh Master, you have quite the large and hard problem down here. How do you want your maids to assist you?" Katrina asks, using a deliberately sultry tone as she eyes Jay's massive hard on. "Well, you could help me by touching it. That'd be a great start." Jay grins, Chell and Nesia gulping as they nod.

"As you wish, Master..." Nesia replies, reaching her hands out to touch the rigid length of his cock. Chell does the same upon seeing Nesia do so, but the two are a little preoccupied by his girth. "It's throbbing in my paws..." Chell breathes, unsure of what to do to make me feel good.

"It's so warm. Warmer than Master's hugs..." Nesia comments as well, before I tap them both on their heads. "You two have no idea about how to go with this, huh?" I ask them with a wry grin, only getting Chell's sheepish grin in response while Nesia nods.

"The first thing to do, is to kiss your Master. This will get him very aroused and in the mood. Like this..." Katrina helps the two along, kissing the horny male full on the lips. Jay opens his mouth, allowing Katrina access to his inner oral cavern as the kiss deepens and becomes more loving.

As they make out, Jay makes sure to rub against Katrina's tongue with his own, which gets a moan out of the lusty feline as she accepts her Master's aggressive act. Once they part, with a string of saliva connecting their mouths, Katrina turns to Chell and Nesia.

"Now, you try it." The Liepard coaxes the two, Chell stepping up to Jay first. "Mister Jay, I wanna kiss..." The Dewott breathes, kissing him on the lips. She doesn't try to use her tongue though, as she has no idea of how to do so. As such, Jay wraps his arms behind her and prods his tongue against her lips.

"Mmm?" Chell mumbles into the kiss, before she gets what her Master wishes her to do. Opening her mouth, she lets Jay's oral appendage slither inside and taste her saliva. "Nmm..." Chell moans into the now erotic kiss, letting Jay rub his tongue against hers with passion and love.

The kiss lasts only for half a minute, but it lasts for what feels to be an eternity for the two Once they separate, both Chell and Jay Chell is left breathless as she smiles at him. "That was amazing, Mister Jay. Could we do that again?" The Dewott is quick to ask for another round, before Jay shakes his head to stop her.

"Not yet, Chell. Nesia hasn't had her kiss yet, so don't hog all of me." Jay chuckles, before turning to beckon his cute Grass Snake over. "Come on, Nesia. Now I'll try kissing you." Jay grins at his Servine, who blushes as she walks over. Jay is quick to pull her into a loving kiss, initially surprising Nesia.

"Mmmf!?" Nesia yelps, but soon relaxes and lets her Master take over, allowing his tongue to explore her mouth and taste her. "Nmm, mmm..." Nesia moans as she feels her Master kiss her lovingly, his tongue now having taken to rubbing against hers with vigor.

Once they separate, Katrina giggles as she addresses Jay's hard on. "Now, we must help our Master to relieve his… pent up stress." She says sexily, giving her Trainer the bedroom eyes as she grasps his member gently.

"Wait a sec, Kat. I want you three to use your mouths for this." Jay, now feeling much bolder, ask this of his Pokemon. "With my… mouth?" Chell asks, blushing hard at the thought of such a lewd act of licking her Master's mating tool.

"Master wants me to… with my mouth..." Nesia repeats to herself, her blush getting deeper as she thinks about licking Jay's man meat. "Yes, your mouths. Now, give it a go. Start with the head, please." Jay replies, before Katrina starts by using her rough tongue to give the throbbing cock a lick.

Jay immediately stiffens once the tongue makes contact with his dick, the electric tingling of pleasure rushing through his nerves and causing his cock to throb. "Now come on, you two. Please your Master." Katrina eggs Chell and Nesia on, as they both lower their heads to Jay's erection,

"Like this?" Chell asks, before licking the right side of the tip with her own tongue. Her tongue isn't as rough as Katrina's is, but is wider and a little more smooth. She tentatively licks Jay's head a couple of times, making Jay grunt in pleasure.

"That's it, kid. Keep doing that. Ness, try licking from the other side like Chell is doing..." Jay groans out the command, to which his loyal serpentine maid complies. Sticking out her long and slender tongue, she licks the bloated mushroom head slowly, her saliva mixing with Chell's as they try their best to please him.

"Does this feel good, Master?" Nesia asks, her words a little messed up due to her using her tongue for other matters. "Yeah, it does. Just… just like that, Ness..." Jay nods shakily in response, letting them lick his head over and over again, their tongues providing good stimulus to his twitching cock.

"Haah… You taste so strong, Mister Jay..." Chell moans with her tongue out, her oral appendage now wetting her Master's dick with more and more spit as she services him. "Master's penis… tastes so musky..." Nesia pants cutely, trailing her serpentine tongue along the top of Jay's head.

Satisfied with how the other two maids are doing, Katrina proceeds to lick the base of Jay's member, curling her own tongue around it and wetting it with her own saliva. Meanwhile, she uses her hand to caress and cup the teenager's balls, which gets Jay to sound off a groan of bliss.

"God, you three. Assaulting me all at once like this..." Jay pants, relishing in the feeling of having three beautiful Pokemon licking his cock like this. The hot breathes that Chell and Nesia give off are tickling his erection as well, adding to the pleasure he's feeling. However, he feels that Chell and Nesia aren't giving the rest of him that much attention.

"Chell, Ness. Could ya… hah… try licking from the middle to the top?" Jay asks the two starter Pokemon, who comply as they start to change up their actions. Chell and Nesia end up licking upwards along their Trainer's cock at the same time, like they're eating an erotic ice pop.

"Does this feel better… Mister Jay? Haah… *slurp* haah… *slp*" Chell pants, her flushed face and outstretched tongue trailing along Jay's cock simply making her an adorable treat to behold in that maid uniform of hers.

"Master… Am I making you… feel good?" Nesia breathes, as her own cute expression as she tries to please Jay makes her quite the cute little Pokemon as well. She's trying her hardest, tongue out and face flushed red as she continues to lick at her Master's erection obediently.

"Yeah, you two… I'm… getting close… Your reward's on the way..." Jay grunts, toes curling as he grits his teeth to try and keep himself from the edge just a little longer. However, it's what Katrina gets the two to say next that makes him lose it completely.

"Master will love it even more if you beg for his sperm, you two. Go on, beg." Katrina mewls sexily, to which Chell and Nesia eye the sweating, panting teenager with pleading looks as they continue to service him. Meanwhile, Katrina ups her ministrations on Jay's dick, sucking on the base of his cock while she uses her saliva to make her hands more slippery as she fondles his balls.

"Mister Jay, please give me your seed. Shoot it all out onto me, please…!" Chell moans throatily as she continues to trail her tongue along the length of her Master's member, her eyes just begging for him to release all of his sticky white breeding fluids onto her innocent little face.

"Master, please. Cover me, make my face white with your semen…!" Nesia pleads with Jay, her tongue now working even faster as she licks up and down his throbbing erection, her expression of wanton lust and begging just serving to make her all the more sexy.

This proves to be too much for Jay, as he sucks in a harsh breath and finally caves in. "Fuck, I'm cumming!" He lets off a groan of euphoria, his member throbbing before spurting out his hot, sticky load onto the unsuspecting faces of his three maids.

The sticky, musky jizz lands on all of their faces, staining Chell's blue facial fur white as some strings land on her face and taints her maid outfit. Nesia and Katrina aren't that much cleaner, as more of the teenager's pheromone laden cum splatters onto their faces and clothing, as well as Katrina's breasts.

"Open your mouths, quickly!" Katrina orders the two other Pokemon, who comply with the command and open up, letting some of Jay's healthy, fertile seed spill into their mouths. Some of the warm, white cum ends up splattering onto Chell's left eye and forces the Dewott to close it. Meanwhile, Nesia has to close her right eye due to some more semen splattering onto it.

Regardless, when Jay's orgasm comes to a close he is greeted to the sigh to three panting yet content Pokemon reeking of his cum. Their faces and maid outfits tainted and their mouths laced with his sperm, they face him with open mouths to show him that they had indeed tasted their Master's reward.

"Did we do well, Mister Jay?" Chell asks her Trainer with an open mouth, his semen still dribbling from her face and onto her clothes. Nesia and Katrina await his answer as well, both staring at him with those dirtied faces of theirs.

"Yeah, kiddo. Good job, for your first." Jay, tired from his massive orgasm, gives the Dewott a nod as he slowly nods off to take a quick break. "Mister Jay?" He suddenly hears Chell voice. "Come on kid, I'm trying to sleep here." Jay groans, before he cracks open his eyes. However, he sees Chell blinking at him, devoid of all sperm and her maid outfit.

"Mister Jay? Are you awake now?" Chell asks him, to which he nods with a smirk. "Yeah, yeah, kiddo. I'm up." He replies, before he feels the tent in his pants. "It was all a dream?" He mutter, to which Chell looks confused.

"What was a dream?" She asks her Trainer, who shakes his head. "Nothing, kiddo. Just go back to training for now, 'kay?" He assures his Pokemon, who nods and runs off to resume her work. "Damn it, now I have a hard on to deal with." He groans, before trying to think of boring things to make the erection go away.

 **Author's Note: Did you remember me saying that I wasn't going to make a 69 special? I LIED! Ha ha! Fooled ya! Did you like the maid outfits? It was a short one, but damn did I enjoy making it! A certain Master of Sandshrews suggested I do this, and I loved his idea! Thanks, dude! Anyways, this happened somewhere between the dream and the training session Jay had the next day. Jay dozed off, as usual, so this happened in his head. Eh, fun while it lasted. Anyways, I hope all of y'all enjoyed this little smut session, and have a good rest of your day!**


	72. Chapter 71

Chapter 71

[Jay]

We wrap lunch up quickly, and the team resumes their training. While everyone is hard at work however, I'm pulled away by an enthusiastic Lily. Well, she's pulling my pants as I follow her along, but she's still pulling me away in technicality.

"Woah, now! Slow down, Lily! You just ate, remember?" I chuckle at the seemingly excited Petilil, who looks to me. "I need your help, Sir! I-if that's okay, that is..." Lily starts, before she catches herself and melds back into her own shy exterior, looking away as she asks me politely.

"No need to ask, Lily. Isn't it a given that I'll help?" I ask her sarcastically, the Petilil smiling in thanks as she walks over to Dani. She also seems to be waiting for her, which is slightly odd. "Wait, why'd you bring him over?" Dani asks her friend, looking to Lily with a confused expression.

"She has a plan, I just have no clue what it is." I reply, that being all I could say about the matter as I shrug. However, Lily quickly takes charge as she pulls on my pant leg. "Hmm? What is it?" I ask her, to which she gestures to my shoulder with her line of sight.

"Um, could you lift me up to your shoulder please? There's something I wanna tell you." The Petilil explains, getting me to comply and use my hand to place her atop my shoulder. After I do so, she whispers into my ear, using the leaves atop her head leaves to block to movements of her mouth from the view of the others.

"I want you to look at Dani for now. Just try to tell her she's doing a good job while they're training, please." Lily tells me secretly, while I raise an eyebrow in interest. So, she's trying to bolster her friend's confidence in herself while she's training alongside her? Not a bad idea, Lily. Quite a good one, as a matter of fact.

"Sure thing, Lily. In the meantime, I'll check on the others as I keep an eye on her. I'll check up on you two later, and I'll tell Dani what she's doing good in. Sound like a plan?" I whisper back, Dani eyeing us with a suspicious glance as she sees us conversing silently in front of her.

"Wait, what the hell are you two talking about?" She questions us and narrowing her eyes at Lily, who lets off an 'eep' as she gets asked that. "U-um, we were, uh…!" The Petilil stutters, trying to formulate an excuse to cover up her plan. Dani might be onto us, but I'll throw her off the trail.

"Well, Lily simply wanted to ask me if she picked a good training spot. Seeing as how the trees around here are a good distance from one another, I'd be inclined to say yes." I fabricate an excuse from my own brain, surprising Lily and even myself at how fast I had made up that information.

"Well, I guess the trees here are pretty spaced out. Nice find, Lily!" Dani shrugs, falling for the bluff and grinning at the Petilil. Lily smiles back, and shoots me a thankful glance as she joins the Cottonee in training. Seriously, am I a natural liar? That sounds like the worst thing to be. Ah, well. It's for the greater good, anyhow. Making Dani happy is kind of a priority on my list of to-dos.

"Now get to it, you two. Work on Energy Ball, and try to make sure that you fire off the shots in the right direction. Something that shouldn't be shot to hell should stay that way, wouldn't you agree?" I remind them with a grin, Dani giggling at the slightly exaggerated implication.

"Yeah, I got it Jay. I'll make sure not to blow anything up by accident." Dani replies, while Lily smiles at me. "I'll work hard, Sir!" The Petilil assures me, making me nod as I get up and leave them to it, walking off to observe the others going at their own training regimens.

Now's a matter of who else I can watch, and see if I can provide some hints. Who should I attend to first, though? "Jay, could you excuse me for a moment? I need your help!" However, my question is answered pretty quickly as I hear Nova calling out to me.

"Sure thing. What do you need?" I ask the Volcarona, approaching her once she calls for my assistance. "Well, I would appreciate it if you gave me some advice on what I should work on. I seem to be at a loss on this matter for now..." Nova replies with a sigh, getting me to.

"No problem. Just keep doing what you've always been doing, and I'll take a look. I did promise to help you earlier, after all." I smile, the Fire moth Pokemon looking to me with a thankful gaze. "Thank you for the help, Jay." The Volcarona thanks me, to which I pat her head.

"No problem, Nova. Now, let's see your moves." I suggest, getting Nova to look a little worried about something. "Every one of my moves?" The Volcarona asks me, unsure of something. "Work with me here, Nova. If you show me your moves, I'll be able to help you think up ways to use them in fights. Not to mention, I'd get to know you a little more." I try to convince the Fire Moth, to which she nods apprehensively.

"I suppose you have a point. Okay, here I go." Nova announces, starting things off with one of her species' signature moves. Fiery scales fall from her wings, taking on the appearance of large embers as she begins to flap them. All the while, I keep my expression neutral as not to affect her emotionally.

The embers reach a fair distance away from Nova's wings, stagnating in the air around the Volcarona. As soon as the embers begins to dissipate, Nova cloaks herself in flames and charges forward at the rock she had designated to be her target. Upon making contact and delivering a blow to the object, the flames seem to be drawn into her form, giving her a boost to her own speed.

She knows Flame Charge too? That's not a bad move, not by any means. A boon to speed is always appreciated, no matter the fight. Nova isn't done with her close range attacking yet, as she quickly bites the rock in quick succession, her mandibles glowing a sickly green. Although, she does reel back in pain once she's done using Bug Bite.

"Ouch! I knew this would happen!" Nova whimpers in pain, trying to use her wings to ease the pain on her mandibles. Meanwhile, I can't help but show my amusement via laughter. So that's what she was worried about! God, that was hilarious.

"Nova dear, you don't have to bite the rock in particular." I stifle a rouge chuckle, seeing her pout at me with tears in the corners of her compound eyes. "Jay, you're so mean!" Nova cries out in response, getting me to grin at her. "For the record, you bit that rock by yourself. I never told you to do that." I point out, the Volcarona unable to refute my statement.

"And I did that for you, too..." Nova huffs, mumbling that bit mostly to herself. However, she didn't foresee that I would hear her. "Alright, let's get a closer look at you." I speak up, coming closer to her. I put a hand to her head and tilt it up slightly, so that I can closely examine her injuries.

"J-Jay!? W-what on earth are you doing!?" Nova stutters and yelps in shock, suddenly feeling my hand caress her chin area and pull her head closer to mine. She seems pretty flustered by my concerned gesture, so I decide to clear things up a little.

"I'm just checking for injuries, Nova. Does it hurt really badly?" I ask the large Fire Moth Pokemon, who shakes her head. "Well, it does not hurt as much as it did when I bit the rock." The Volcarona replies, to which I sigh in relief.

"Listen, Nova. I know you did that for me, and I'm happy that ya did. Sorry for laughing at you just now." I apologize to the Volcarona, who looks back to me with a blush. "I forgive you, Jay. However, I hope you will make less fun of me like that in the future." Nova replies, to which I shrug.

"Eh, no promises on that front. Sometimes, a good laugh is what I need." I quickly turn down the condition set by the Fire Moth Pokemon, getting her to pout at me anew. "Jay!" She huffs, making me smirk as I caress her horns in an attempt to reason with her.

"Come on, Nova. Don't be mad, it's all in good fun." I assure Nova, who sighs as she eyes me with a weary smile. "Just try not to do that too often." She simply replies, leaving it at that. "Sure thing. Now, let's see your other moves." I suggest, getting the Volcarona to nod as she gets back on track.

She begins to dance gracefully, her wings releasing wisps of sickly green energy that seep into the air around her. Her dance involves the usage of her wings to perform graceful midair motions and gentle flaps, which serve to keep the energy circling around her.

"Woah…" I marvel, awed by the sheer beauty of her Quiver Dance. Sure, I've heard of the move before, but I've never seen the move being performed like this. She's so beautiful in her dance, so much that I'm truly enraptured by her performance, short as it was.

As quickly as she's done with her dance, all the residual green energy surrounding her enters her form, granting her a boost to her Special Attack, Special Defense, and her Speed. After that, she shoots a line of string from her mouth area, latching onto the rock and stringing it up.

Once she's done using String Shot, she quickly covers her wings in a sickly green glow, before flapping them at the rock, unleashing a barrage of green blades at the gummed up boulder. The rock is pelted by the full force of the Silver Wind attack, having also been buffed by her Quiver Dance.

However, Nova isn't done yet. She follows up with a smaller cloud of embers from her wings, lighting up the string on the rock and dealing some really good damage to it. Geez, I'm starting to feel bad for the poor boulder. Once Nova's done, she looks to me with a slightly uneasy expression.

"And that is all the moves I know." The Volcarona informs me, looking to me for my verdict. "Hey, those moves are good. Not to mention you know String Shot, so you could try to string someone up and lower their speed, before trying to set them on fire." I compliment her, getting Nova to blush.

"Oh, thank you Jay." The Fire Moth Pokemon thanks me for the praise, smiling happily after she hears me say that. "Although, you might need a move other than Ember. Since you have Fiery Dance, I think Ember is a little excessive." I add, Nova nodding in understanding as she listens to my suggestion.

"Then what move should I learn?" The Volcarona asks me, getting me to think about it for a while. Flamethrower doesn't seem to be a good option, as it only does a little more damage than Fiery Dance and it doesn't even provide much other than a slight burn chance. Fire Blast, on the other hand, does so much more damage than a simple blast of flame, and it also provides a powerful option for Nova.

"I think Fire Blast should be a good move to have. It does even more damage than your Fiery Dance, and you can use Quiver Dance to make it even stronger." I speak up and voice my own opinion, Nova nodding as she hears me out.

"I see. Then, I shall learn Fire Blast." The Fire Moth Pokemon replies, seeming to agree with my form of logic, if you could call it that. However she quickly realizes something, and quickly turns to me with a worried expression.

"But I have no clue as to how I should start..." Nova reluctantly admits, to which I chuckle as I place my hand on her head. "Eh, no worries. I'll walk you through the idea of how to do it, and then you'll have to figure the rest out. Sound good?" I suggest, the Volcarona nodding in response.

"Okay, so you'll have to focus on your inner flame for this one. Try thinking about building up a burst of flame within yourself, and pour more energy into that flame to make it stronger and hotter." I begin to guide Nova through the process, the Volcarona nodding as she begins to focus.

It takes her a little while to envision the concept I had outlined to her, but soon enough I feel a warm heat emanating from her form. Not only that, she's starting to glow a slight orange due to the buildup of fire energy within her own body.

"Jay? I feel a little hot..." Nova pants as she continues to go at it, trying her best to keep the energy pooling within herself. Meanwhile, I look to her encouragingly. "That's it, Nova! You're dong great, so try and make the flame even hotter!" I cheer her on, the Volcarona smiling despite the strain.

Yeah, strong attacks like this need a large amount of focus to pull off. It's due to the excess energy, or magic, required to fuel the sheer power of the attack which makes it such a hassle to charge. On top of that, the user must be strong willed if they want to hold that much power within themselves. A lot of training is needed to pull off such moves quickly and effectively, and it puts much strain on the Soul.

However, I had overestimated the will power of the Fire Moth Pokemon, as all that energy suddenly dissipates. "Ahh!" Nova cries out, feeling no shortage of pain as her body forcefully expunges all of the magic she had built up within herself. She falls to the ground, the strain leaving her mentally drained.

"Nova! You okay!?" I call out to the Volcarona, rushing to her side and checking her condition. Although she may have experienced immense pain due to the excess energy seeping out of her, she hasn't suffered any physical damage. Sighing in relief, I prop her weakened form up against my arm.

"Jay, my body hurts so much..." Nova groans in pain, getting me to gently stroke her horns to try and alleviate the pain. "You're okay, Nova. You didn't take any actual damage from that excess energy, so the pain was the only side effect." I tell her, getting her to sigh in relief herself.

"I am very glad to hear that, Jay." She smiles at me, before she sees my guilty expression. "Jay? Is there something wrong?" Nova asks me, to which I gesture to her. "Nova, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." I reply, shocking the Volcarona.

"I knew this would've happened, but I asked you to do it anyway. I shouldn't have asked you to do something like this." I apologize to her, cursing my own inability to see that she would not have been able to do as I asked. Damn it, I should have seen it coming! If I had, she wouldn't have gotten hurt like this!

"Jay, there is no need to apologize to me." Nova speaks up, getting me to look at her with an expression of surprise. "Wait, what? But I caused you to feel all that pain. I hurt you, Nova." I point out while the guilt gnaws at my chest, Nova shaking her head in reply.

"Jay, this is all part of my learning how to use Fire Blast. If getting stronger for you means suffering through some pain, then so be it." The Volcarona tells me, her eyes surprising me by showing her determination. It isn't weak by any means, burning brightly as her gaze meets my own. She's so supportive of my idea, even though it might hurt her.

"Nova, thanks. For believing in me." I thank the Fire Moth Pokemon, getting a little teary eyed as I hug her. "Jay?" Nova asks, slightly shocked for a moment by my sudden gesture of affection. However, she returns the hug to the best of her ability, using both her legs and her wings to wrap around me.

"I have always believed in you, Jay. I'm surprised you did not notice that sooner." Nova replies, a little annoyance seeping through her tone at the last part. "Well, I see that now. Sorry for not noticing sooner." I apologize to her, as I hug her back tighter and make her blush a bit.

"Jay, you don't have to hug me so tightly..." The Volcarona speaks up, getting a little flustered by the sudden affections of the person hugging her. "But I do like you, Nova. This hug is just my way of saying that. For humans, we only hug people we like or care about." I explain, Nova blushing even brighter at that.

"S-so, do you like me or do you care about me?" The Fire Moth Pokemon stutters a little, trying to press the issue and find out how I feel towards her. "Well, is both an option here?" I ask her, a wry smile upon my features as I question her in kind, giving her my answer.

"Well, if it is your answer..." Nova trails off, averting her gaze and seeming rather uncertain about it as we separate from our hug. "Trust me on this, Nova. It is. I care about you a lot, and you being here by my side makes me pretty happy." I smile genuinely at her, holding her head close to mine as I say so. "Jay…" The Volcarona is left speechless, smiling happily at me for saying that. We share this tender moment for a bit, before Nova looks to her teammates.

"Well, I should return to my training. I wish to learn Fire Blast as quickly as possible, so that I may become stronger like everyone else." Nova reminds me of the training I had set up for her, causing me to nod her way in understanding.

"Sure thing, Nova. Try not to get hurt, okay?" I smile as I remind the Volcarona, before walking off to observe the others going at it. I see that Chell and Nesia are both sweaty and panting, as well as bruised in some places. They seem to be taking a break for now, so I decide to walk over and greet them.

"Chell, Ness. Had a good training session, I see." I greet the two starter Pokemon, who beam as they see me. Well, Chell beams. Nesia shows me what seems to be a small smile instead. She's still pretty darn cute though, so that negates the need to smile widely like Chell.

"Yes we did, Mister Jay!" Chell speaks up proudly, putting a hand to her chest as she nods to my comment. "We made progress, Master. I am getting better with my attack power." Nesia tells me, her expression calm and collected as she informs me of her current status.

"And I've been working super hard on my own Razor Ice, Mister Jay! I only broke it twice!" Chell adds, as she quickly pulls out her scalchop and freezes it over for me to see. "Look, look! It's staying together more when I use it!" She tells me with an excited tone as she shows me the icy blade.

In response to their reports, I can't help but smile at the two Pokemon. "I see. Good job, you two. You're really working hard on this, huh?" I praise both the Dewott and the Servine, patting their heads and making them both sigh happily as they receive my affectionate ministrations.

"Master's hand feels nice and warm. I'm so happy..." Nesia giggles, making my heart stop with the sheer cuteness of her actions. "I like this, Mister Jay. Don't stop..." Chell breathes as she nuzzles my hand with her head, to which I smirk and ruffle her head.

"Stop it, you two. My heart can't take all this cute at once…!" I say in an exaggerated gasp, clutching my chest area as I fall to the floor. "Heart… stopping… too cute… blegh." I make a show out of it, falling to the floor and laying still after my supposed heart attack. Chell giggles in reply, poking my cheek.

"I know you're not dead, Mister Jay!" She sighs playfully, reciprocating my humor as she laughs at me. "Dang, how did you know!?" I huff, crossing my arms and putting in a fake manner. "You're so funny, Mister Jay!" Chell smiles, getting me to smile at her in kind as I get up.

"Master is such a goofball." Nesia sighs, although her smile indicates that she isn't unappreciative of my little stunt. "Eh, true. But I'm your goofball, Ness." I remind her, booping her on the nose and making her blush. "That sounds nice." Nesia nods, smiling as she thinks about what I had said.

"Besides, it's im-paw-sible to stay away from your cuteness, Ness. You could scale up to a nuclear bomb, with the deadly capabilities of your smile!" I joke, Chell giggling as she hears me make the pun. "Good one, Mister Jay!" Chell says, her form shaking with mirth.

"Master, you and your puns..." Nesia sighs, rolling her eyes at me before blushing. "You did call me cute, so I'll let this slide." The Servine concludes, getting Chell to pout as she hears her friend. "But Mister Jay, aren't I cute too?" Chell asks me, despite me having already told her what she wanted to hear.

"I'm pretty sure I already said it out loud, kiddo." I remind the Dewott, who shakes her head. "No, Mister Jay! Say it again!" She insists with a pout, crossing her arms playfully. "Alright, then. You're really cute too, Chell." I tell the Dewott, who blushes slightly as she grins. "Yay! Mister Jay called me cute!" She cheers, jumping about like a child who had just won a grand prize of toys. Silly little Dewott.

"Now let's check up on your injuries, shall we?" I suggest, pulling out the half empty Potion bottle that I had used earlier. "Sure thing!" Chell nods, walking over with Nesia and sitting down next to me. Nesia does the same, which makes me gesture to my lap.

"Now, I want both to place your heads on my lap. I wanna make this little check-up as comfortable as possible." I inform them, both starters blushing as they comply with my wishes. "Master's lap is soft..." Nesia comments with a smile, Chell giggling as she rolls to the side and looks at her friend.

"Of course Mister Jay's lap is soft! He's not made of rocks, ya know!" The Dewott says that, before she looks up at me. "Are you gonna check our bodies now, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, getting me to blush at the implications of how that was worded. Seriously, Chell. You need to stop making this weird!

Nesia also seems to realize the rather implicit meaning of the sentence, and she blushes brightly as she looks up at me in kind. "Master can check my body all he wants..." The Servine, going along with the unintentional flirting, says as she looks at me with a nervous glance.

"Uh, let's not get carried away." I remind them, before checking their forms for any sort of bruises or cuts. They don't have a whole lot of those, and my Potion quickly works it's magic on any wounds that I do find on them. They flinch in pain at every spray, but I pat their heads to try and comfort them.

"There. That should do it." I finally say after a bit of checking and double checking, to see that I didn't miss anything. Chell and Nesia however, do not seem to be listening to me. Instead, I can see that they're a little busy nuzzling their heads into my lap.

"Ahem." I cough into my hand, startling the Dewott and Servine into looking up at me. "Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, Nesia eyeing me with confusion. "Come on, you two. I'm done, so you can get off my lap now." I chuckle, rubbing their heads and seeing them frown in disappointment as they hear that.

"Okay..." Chell sighs sadly, Nesia's expression becoming slightly sad as she gets back up. These two seem to enjoy my lap a little too much, but that's something I could oblige with. "Well, you two could do this later tonight. What do you say?" I ask them, to which I see their eyes light up eagerly.

"Yay!" Chell cheers happily, while Nesia nods with a smile. "I would like that a lot." She adds, getting me to nod and pat them on the head again. "Sure thing. It's a date!" I grin, Nesia and Chell blushing as they hear me say that. "A date…?" Chell repeats, Nesia averting her gaze as she gets flustered.

"No, not literally. That's a human saying. It means that I'll see you there." I explain, Chell and Nesia pouting as they hear me out. "And I thought Mister Jay was finally gonna love us, too..." The Dewott huffs, making me sigh in exasperation.

"No, I've always loved you. Both of you. That's why I really like spending time with you." I make that clear between the two of them, said starter Pokemon blushing and smiling giddily when I say that. "Master's words make me so happy..." Nesia sighs, while Chell is grinning at me.

"Okay, you two. Are you gonna stand there like love-struck school children, or are you gonna train some more? I don't think you should work on any new moves, but you shouldn't slack off either." I tell them, as Chell and Nesia quickly realize what they were doing in the first place.

"Right! We'll get to it, Mister Jay!" Chell nods to me, before quickly creating her Razor Ice anew and charging at the trees. "I shall do the same, Master." Nesia nods to me, quickly slithering off to find more targets on which to practice her Leaf Storm on.

With those two gone and off to train hard anew, I try looking around to see if anyone else might need some advice. However, I quickly answer that as I see Cleo simply firing off Thunder shot after Thunder shot at her chosen rock. She's firing them off pretty quickly, but she needs a melee move to use that isn't Tackle.

"Hey, Cleo. Got a second?" I ask the Flaafy, who's just finished letting loose her most recent Thunder unto the rock that she had designated as her target. "Howdy, Jay! What brings ya here?" Cleo smiles when she sees me, waving and responding in her thick Southern accent.

"Well, I wanted to see ya, for one." I reply, getting the Flaafy to giggle as she hears that. "Yeah, sure thing Jay. Why are ya really here ta see little ol' me?" She asks me again, brushing off my compliment as I sigh. "Nothing gets past ya, huh?" I remark, shrugging as I sit down and get to the point.

"Well, I've noticed how you've been coming along with your Thunder. You're making really good progress so far, but there is something else you'll need if you wanna pick a fight." I tell her, Cleo looking rather confused when she hears that.

"Sumthin' else? Like what?" She questions me, looking confused as to what I mean. "Well, you're going to need something for when your opponent decides to close the gap between them and you. Can't exactly fire off a Thunder if you're getting hammered, right?" I explain, Cleo nodding in reply.

"Well, Ah suppose you've gotta point there. What should Ah be doin' about that problem, then?" Cleo asks me for my opinion, to which I gesture to her limbs. "Well, you can learn Fire Punch. It's a good move to have, especially since we're literally in an area filled to the brim with Pokemon that are weak to fire." I suggest, Cleo's brows furrowing over what she hears me say.

"But, how do Ah do that? Ah dunno if Ah can even learn how ta make fire, much less use Fire Punch." The Flaafy voices her concern and doubt about my plans, getting me to stand up. "Hold on a sec, where are ya goin'?" Cleo asks me, to which I smirk.

"Come with me, then. There's a certain somebody who might be able to teach you how to make the flames work in your favor." I reply, walking off with a slightly confused Flaafy in tow. "Oi, Nova! You have a minute?" I ask the Volcarona, who is in the middle of charging up another Fire Blast.

"Jay!?" However, my voice makes her lose focus, Nova letting off a gasp as the energy she had been channeling exits through her open mouth. The flame spout looks like a typical Flamethrower, but not quite a Fire Blast yet. I still have to dodge the seraing flames headed towards me and Cleo, though.

"Woah!" I yelp, acting fast and holding out my hand. Almost instantly, the flames stop in their tracks and I send the attack skywards with a flick of my wrist, the attack dispersing in midair. "Whew, now that was a close one. Thanks fer the save." Cleo sighs in relief, her tone thankful as I grin.

"Eh, no problem. Can't have the pretty country gal bursting into flames, now can we?" I reply, Cleo blushing a little as she coughs and averts her gaze. "Anywho, weren't you supposed ta help me with sumthin'?" Cleo remind me in embarrassment, although she doesn't really take offense to my words.

"Right, right. I'm sorry for interrupting your training, Nova, but I need to ask a favor of you. Cleo is capable of learning Fire Punch, but I can't really tell her how it's done, because I don't know what it takes for a Pokemon that isn't a Fire Type to learn Fire Type Moves. You're the only one I could think of to ask, so could you help me out?" I ask the Volcarona, who seems to be initially surprised.

"Oh! Yes, of course. I shall try my best to teach Cleo, Jay." Nova quickly replies and nods, however I do notice a blush creep onto her face. Nova doesn't pay that any heed though, and proceeds to fly over to Cleo. The Flaafy doesn't seem too excited about talking to a flame moth, but she listens in anyway.

"Cleo, the first thing I need you to do is envision a sort of heat within yourself." Nova starts to try and teach the western sounding Pokemon how to emit flames, and Cleo simply raises an eyebrow in reply. "Wait, how is that supposed ta help?" She questions the Volcarona, who frowns at those words.

"Well you could doubt me, but that would not help with your training." She informs the Flaafy as she lets her hurt feelings show, who flinches and quickly shakes her head. "No, Ah meant that Ah've never tried that before. Sorry." Cleo immediately tries to apologize to Nova, getting a smile out of her.

"It is perfectly alright. I went though much confusion trying to learn Fire moves as well. Now, try to envision that heat." Nova encourages her temporary student, Cleo simply nodding as she closes her eyes to try and picture what Nova was referring to.

It doesn't take long for Cleo to see in her mind the heat. "Well, Ah can see it. Now what?" The Flaffy asks Nova, who smiles and speaks up again. "Next, you should attempt to give energy to the heat. Imagine yourself turning your inner energy into fuel for it." The Volcarona explains, while Cleo listens intently.

As soon as Cleo nods with her eyes still shut, I hear her suddenly yelp in pain. "Ack! Consarn it, mah chest!" The Flaafy hisses, clutching her chest and stumbling as she loses focus. "Cleo! What's happening!?" I quickly jump to my feet, worried for the well being of the Flaafy.

"Wait a minute. The pain, the heat… It's all gone." Cleo suddenly realizes as I kneel by her side, clutching her chest for the pain that seems to have vanished. "Wait, what? What happened?" I raise an eyebrow, to which Cleo glares at Nova.

"Ya lied ta me, ya big eyed varmit!" The Flaafy growls at the large Fire Type, who shakes her head with a smile. "Well done, Cleo! You have done it!" She congratulates Cleo, who looks to her in surprise. "Ah did?" She repeats what she had heard, making me raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, you have! That pain you felt just now, was you finally giving energy to your inner fire. If you focus on your forelimbs, and will the flame to go there, you should be able to commence with using Fire Punch!" The Volcarona tells the Flaafy, excited about how her teammate was progressing.

In reply, Cleo bows her head guiltily at Nova. "You were tryin' ta help me, an' Ah just accused ya of lyin'. Ah'm sorry, Nova." Cleo apologizes, getting Nova to shake her head. "There's no need for apologies. I will admit that feeling your inner fire for the first time will be painful. I have experienced similar pains myself." The Volcarona ensures the Flaafy, both sides smiling at the other.

"Anyway, thanks fer teachin' me, Nova." Cleo expresses her gratitude to the Fire Moth, who simply looks to me with a smile. "No need to thank me, Cleo. I was simply doing what Jay wished of me." She replies, while I smile at the two for making nice to each other.

"Nice job, Cleo. Now, I trust you and Nova will keep going at it while I check on the others?" I speak up, the Flaafy and the Volcarona nodding in reply. "You betcha, Jay! Ah'll get down to the bottom a' this whole Fire Punch thing." Cleo replies, while Nova quickly returns to her own channeling of energy.

"Alright, then. Keep it up, you two!" I cheer them on one last time, before I look around the area. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, there's a little more time I could spend before night falls. But what should I spend that time on?

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	73. Chapter 72

Chapter 72

[Jay]

"What are we supposed to do here, anyways?" I suddenly hear someone talking to my left, getting me to turn around and look over to see Taylor and Belladonna talking with each other. They seem to be a little confused about this whole training thing, so I might as well check up on 'em.

"I dunno, actually. Jay told us to work on attacking, but I don't know what we're supposed to work on." Belladonna replies to her friend, just in time for me to walk up to them. They're a little distracted, so I might be able to spook 'em.

"Hmm, maybe I could help with that." I speak up from behind the two Bug Types, who jump in shock as they hear my voice. Turning around, they quickly realize it was me who had decided to talk to them. Well, that and to mess with them, as they could see my shit eating grin plastered on my face.

"Damn it, you dumbass! Don't scare us like that!" Belladonna sighs, while Taylor opts to shoot for my head, making sure her silk hits home and lands on my back. "You fucking ass!" She yells at me, making me shrug as I use magic to get the silk off my back.

"Eh, it's not exactly like I have much else to smile at. Everyone else is busy, so I'm here to help. Besides, you two sounded like you could use a couple pointers." I reply, flicking the sticky strings of protein away from myself and letting them drop to the floor.

"Oh, yeah? Well, you're not doing a really good job of it!" Taylor huffs, looking away from me with an angry disposition. "And now, she's angry. Good luck trying to calm her down, Jay. You'll need it." Belladonna speaks up, shaking her head at me in mock disappointment.

"Okay, I'll admit that I went too far. Sorry for spooking ya, Taylor." I apologize, the Sewaddle simply huffing and turning a blind eye to my existence. "Fuck off, ass!" She spits, to which I flinch and simply back away. Very slowly.

"Well, that was fast." I hear Belladonna giggle behind me, getting me to shrug at the Venipede in return. "What did you expect? If you have a hard time calming her down, I don't have a snowball's chance in hell at it." I reply, as Belladonna simply shoots me awry grin.

"Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal. She'll come around eventually, just wait it out." The Venipede admits, getting me to nod as I turn to deal with more important matters at the moment. I made a promise to her, and I'm sure as hell gonna own up to what I said.

"Well, let's just do something else for now. Sound good?" I ask the Venipede, who nods as she gives her friend one last glance before turning to address me. "Sure. What do you think I need help with?" She asks, to which I gesture to the tree next to her.

"Well, you could start off by showing me what you know, and how you like using it. It'll help me get to know you better." I reply, Belladonna nodding in compliance with my suggestion. "Sounds good to me. So, how do I start?" The Bug Type asks me, making me shrug at her question.

"That's something you're better off asking yourself. How do you wanna start, Bella? Choose something you like attacking with, and I'll help you work on moves that'll help you with that." I tell her, to which she smirks my way and ceases her questions.

"You wanna see what I can do? Alright, I'll show ya!" She grins, quickly curling into a ball and rolling at the tree, smacking into it. However, the tree doesn't seem to be hit too hard, as only a barely noticeable thumping sound is registered by my ears. She just used Rollout, but it's not that strong.

"Gah!" Belladonna yelps, maintaining her curled up state regardless of her slight pain. She then rolls into the tree a couple more times, before she uncurls and switches up her tactics. She concentrates for a bit, before firing a few purple darts that pierce the bark of the tree.

The Poison Sting seems to make its mark, before it detaches from the tree and makes a few pitiful thumping sounds on the ground before dissipating into energy. Belladonna looks to me expectantly, and for a minute I can't bring myself to tell her the truth.

"So, how'd I do?" Belladonna asks me, making me panic internally. There's no two ways about this one. If she wants to be a stronger Pokemon than she is now, she's gonna have to work really hard. Hell, I'd be willing to bet that even Lily could one up her right now.

"Uh, how much training did you say you got from your dad?" I question her in return, seeing her expression turn from hopeful to saddened. Damn it, she can already tell that my answer isn't gonna be good to hear? I don't wanna shoot down her hopes, but she needs to know...

"Well, not much at all." She visibly deflates, sad due to the fact that my barely hidden answer was showing. "Was I that bad?" She asks me, her tone begging me to tell her the truth. "Uh… You did fine, Bella." I reply, trying my best to lie to her.

"What he means to say is that you suck." I suddenly hear Taylor answer Belladonna honestly for me, getting the Venipede to tear up once she sees my shock. "How did you..." I mumble aloud, only solidifying the fact that I was hiding the painful truth from her.

"Jay, I… I need a minute." Belladonna sniffs, before promptly running away up into a tree. After the rustling stops, I see Taylor looking at me with a glare. "Heya, Taylor. How's it-" I greet her with a shaky smile, before she immediately takes the chance to bite my leg.

"Ow! What the hell!" I curse, pulling my leg back and nursing my injury. "That's for not telling her the truth, ass." She simply replies, before she lets out a sigh and crawls over to me. "I guess I deserved that." I shrug, hearing Belladonna crying in the tree overhead. I feel like such an asshole right now…

"Well, I know you meant well at least. But you've gotta tell her the truth, whether she'll like it or not." Taylor tells me, her tone becoming less angry and more caring. Melancholic, even. "You believe in tough love, eh?" I grin wryly at her, making the Sewaddle nod in reply.

"I guess I do. It's just that… I don't think lying to anyone is right." She speaks her mind, as if she's talking from her own personal experience. "I'm guessing this is because it has something to do with where you're from?" I try to press the questioning further, to learn more about her past. However, my attempt to know her is quickly denied.

"I'm not comfortable telling you that, Jay. Just… just don't ask." She briskly says, closing the conversation there. "Well, sure. I won't pry anymore, I promise." I assure her, before I pat her on the back to get her attention.

"But if you wanna talk, then you know where to find me. I find that the past hurts less, when you have someone to listen to ya." I tell her, getting her to chuckle as she rolls her eyes. "Eh, sure. If I ever feel crazy enough to share my story to an ass like you, that is." She entertains herself with the idea for a bit, making me frown in reply.

"I'm not that much of an ass, am I?" I ask her sarcastically, getting her to grin my way. "You sure as hell are one, you ass." The Sewaddle decides to quip, before quickly letting the bite and the snark in her tone return. In response, I gasp in an exaggerated manner as I put a hand to my chest.

"Come on, Taylor. That hurt real bad." I fake my pain, seeing her actually smile at me for a change. However, that smile quickly disappears as she gets serious again. Man, she shifts gears fast. I'm almost taken aback by how quickly she had dispelled her smile.

"Now come on, Jay. I need to train up." She reminds me, her hardened expression returning to her features anew. "Right, right. So, should we wait for Bella to get over it?" I ask her, to which the Bug Type shakes her head.

"No. If she wants to be stronger, she needs to find it within her to believe she can do it." She replies, making me nod in agreement. "Eh, true. If she doesn't believe in herself, then there isn't much of a point if we believe in her." I speak up, Taylor grinning at me once more.

"Huh. I honestly didn't expect an ass like you to say something that meaningful." She admits almost jokingly, getting a laugh out of me. "I could write a book about things you wouldn't expect from me. Like how I think you should smile more." I tell her in return, getting the Bug Type to look surprised.

"You're just flirting with me now, Jay." She huffs, averting her gaze as she looks away from me. "I'm telling the truth, Taylor. Your smile is nice to look at, and it suits you." I persist, and I see the beginnings of a blush forming on her features.

"Shut it, you ass. That won't make me hate you less." She smirks as she tries and fails to hide a small blush blooming on her cheeks, to which I chuckle and ruffle her head leaves. "Now, what do you know that isn't String Shot?" I ask her, making her grin when she hears that question.

"You don't know much about me either, now do you?" She throws my own words right back at me, getting me to chuckle. "Alright, point taken. Could you answer me, now?" I reply, getting Taylor to start her own combat demonstration.

"Take this!" The Sewaddle yells confidently, throwing a barrage of sharp, green glowing leaves at the tree she was targeting. The Razor Leaf hits home, the leaves all making shallow and slim cuts along the bark, just in time for her to stick the tree with her String Shot.

However, she doesn't cut the rope attached to her mouth. Instead, she uses the string to sling over to the tree and unleash a quick flurry of bites to it. The Bug Type then sticks to the tree, nibbling it until sap flows from it's trunk. Satisfied, she then takes her time sipping sap from the tree's open wound.

I take this time to look over to Dani and Lily. Specifically, I see that the Cottonee is doing great with her Energy Ball training. She's gotten the sphere up to a reasonable size, although it's still a ways away from the standard size I had shown them. But progress is still progress, no matter how small.

"Alright, done!" Taylor finally says after a bit, detaching from the tree and letting me see the damage she had done. "Well, you are doing good with your moves Taylor." I comment, observing the cuts and bite marks on the tree. Meanwhile, I hear the tree Belladonna had been in rustle for a bit.

"Yeah, I know. You don't have to tell me that." The Sewaddle boasts, her confidence just oozing from her form as she holds her head high. Well, high for her. It's seriously not helping that she's literally shorter than my knee.

"Well, I think picking up a move that does more damage would help you right now." I suggest, Taylor raising an eyebrow at that. "Why's that?" She asks, looking doubtful of my reasoning. "Well, Razor Leaf and Bug Bite are good moves to have, but your strongest ranged attack isn't that powerful when compared to stuff like Energy Ball, which does more damage." I explain, Taylor nodding in agreement.

"Well, I guess another hard hitting move wouldn't hurt. So, how do I do that? Learning Energy Ball, I mean." She is quick to question how I expect her to learn it, getting me to gesture to Lily and Dani. "Well, you could take a hint from those two. They're also learning Energy Ball, and I think working with friends is better than working alone." I tell her, the Sewaddle nodding with a smirk.

"Right, right. Sure thing, Jay. I'll work with those two." She replies, before crawling off to approach the two Grass Types. "Hold on, Taylor. No pranking those two while they're working on this. Energy Ball needs a fair amount of energy to charge, and if they lose focus, that power could hurt them and someone else." I warn her, which gets me a huff from her.

"Aw, come on! You're such a stick in the mud!" The Sewaddle groans, her smirk replaced with a frown before heading over to them. Once she begins talking to them, I see Dani and Lily looking my way as Taylor gestures to me. As soon as the Cottonee looks over, I give her a thumbs up and a smile.

This gets quite the reaction out of her, as her face shows her shock. She looks away, with a content grin tugging at her lips. Lily notices, and simply giggles at her friend's sudden happier shift in mood. Taylor doesn't notice, and simply continues asking for their help albeit a little begrudgingly.

"Hey, Jay?" I suddenly hear to my left, making me look down to see Belladonna beside me. "Heya, Bella. What is it?" I ask the Bug Type, who looks at me with her slightly red eyes. She's been crying for a little bit, if that and her sniffling is any indication.

"Sorry for running off like that just now." She apologizes to me first, to which I shake my head. "There's no need for apologies. I get that personal space is important every now and then." I assure the Venipede, who nods thankfully before she continues with what she has to tell me.

"I heard what you two said, and I've made up my mind. I'm not going to let this stop me from getting stronger!" Belladonna tells me, her own expression showing me her willingness to push past her current state of being. Well, it would seem that she's made up her mind.

"That's the mindset I like to see. With that attitude of yours, who knows what you'll be able to accomplish?" I smile her way, patting her on the head in reply. Belladonna smiles back, as I sit down next to her and contemplate what I should suggest to help her out of this power problem.

"Well, I suppose you should start by using your moves more. With time, you'll get stronger as you practice, and you'll end up beating more opponents with the move set you have now." I speak up, gesturing to the trees near our current position.

"Just get working on your current moves, and you'll start to get a feel for how to use them. If you have any questions, just ask away. You know I'm not going anywhere." I tell her, getting the Venipede to smirk. "I know, you dumbass." She rolls her eyes humorously, before she begins to launch more poisonous needles at the tree in front of us.

With that matter settled, I decide leave the Venipede be and scrounge up some dinner. Meat sounds like a good idea, so why the hell not? Well, if I can find any, that is. "Time to go hunting." I muse, smirking as I pull out my hunting knife and walk over to where Chell, Nesia and Nova are.

"Heya, girls." I greet the trio of Pokemon, who smile and greet me with enthusiasm. "Hiya, Mister Jay!" Chell exclaims, in the middle of another combo with her Razor Shell attack. "Hello, Master." Nesia greets me, her Leaf Storm just finishing it's run through of another unfortunate tree.

"Hello, Jay. It it quite nice to see you." Nova adds, smiling as I give her, along with the two starter Pokemon a head pat. "I'll be heading off into the woods for now, to try and find some dinner. You three just keep an eye on everyone for now, and make sure all of you don't get into too much trouble. Got it?" I inform the three, who nod in unison.

"Right! You can count on us!" Chell assures me, placing a paw to her chest as Nesia nods in light of her friend's words. "We won't let anyone get hurt, Master." The Servine replies, the Volcarona smiling as she agrees with the two starter Pokemon.

"Not to worry, Jay. I can assure you that none of us will come to harm." Nova adds, making me nod in thanks. "Glad to hear, you three. I'm counting on you, now." I grin, walking off into the forest with my knife in my hoodie pocket. They wave back, sending me off. Well, except Nova. She can't wave with those wings of hers.

"Now, where to?" I wonder, walking past the treeline and immediately being confronted with a choice of paths. There's a fork in the road, with the two paths leading to God knows where. There aren't any reliable maps about Pinwheel Forest beyond the roads, so I can't get any advice on this one. Each option doesn't seem to be more appealing than the last, so I suppose I'll leave it up to chance.

"Well, might as well flip a coin." I shrug, deciding to rely on the most reliable item ever devised to settle a fair choice. I reach into my wallet for a coin, and sure enough I find a ten dollar coin. "Huh. I'm surprised I still have one of these." I chuckle, before flicking the coin into the air with a thumb. Heads, I'll take a left. Tails, I'll go right.

The small object spins around in the air for a while, before it lands into my palm and I slam my other hand down onto it. Lifting my hand, I see a sideways head of one of our past presidents staring right back at me. Hello to you too, random important guy.

"Huh. Left it is." I grin, pocketing the coin and making a left turn. The forest isn't that dangerous around here, as the real threats like Scolipede and the like only hang around the deeper parts of the woods, where human interference is basically zero.

So, that means that I have to go deeper inside if I wanna find some good food to munch on. Why? Well, although the Scolipede have learned to avoided from the more human infested areas, that also means that most animals have wised up over the years and have decided to move deeper into the forest to avoid being murdered outright.

"So, I still need to risk my bacon to get some bacon." I conclude out loud, sighing as I answer my own question. Humans may be the strongest species on Earth right now, but god damn they can cause each other some serious problems.

"Eh, not that big a deal." I shrug, before immediately looking down to find my first clue of animal activity. Tracks in the mud, of different shapes and sizes. It would seem that both wild boar and Sawsbuck have all run through this area. However, the most important part is that the hoof prints all seem to be fresh. From the looks of it, they must have run off in a hurry.

But from what, I wonder? I don't see any indication of a fight or an ambush going on around here, so they must have been spooked into running from the scent of whatever came close. Maybe humans came along before I did, but I don't see any signs of footprints or tire tracks.

"Eh, not my problem for now." I leave it at that, before opting to follow the boar tracks through the forest in order to find my catch. I decide to be a little stealthier this time, crouching down low in order not to spook the animals that made those tracks.

However as I move along the forest floor, I come into an area where the trees surrounding me have been scratched along their bark. The marks are too wide to be antlers or horns, but what really appalls me is the horrific sight in the center of the area.

"Jesus Christ..." I breathe, disgusted by the mutilated corpses that litter the ground here. I count eight Sawsbuck, some riddled with holes and others with their bodies charred black, all lie there not moving and lifeless. These Pokemon were killed in cold blood, most likely by human hunters.

What really gives away that humans were involved are the occasional bullet embedded in the trees around the pile of bodies, as well as the bullet casings that litter the ground. All the Sawsbuck corpses are missing their antlers, a telltale sign of human greed at it's finest.

With that information, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened to them. These Season Pokemon were hunted down and brutally murdered, simply because some humans knew they could profit from their antlers. Fucking scum, whoever did this to them.

Deer antlers can sell for a really high price, into the hundreds of thousands, but Sawsbuck antlers can be worth up to triple that, as the material is even harder to come across due to the various laws that makes the harvesting and killing of such Pokemon highly illegal. Like, life in jail illegal.

The tragedy that struck here was recent, if the drying and still red blood is any indication. There don't seem to be any tire tracks that lead away from here either, so whoever did this might not be that far or used helicopters to take their haul out of here.

The helicopter theory seems to be less likely, as the team and I would most likely have noticed the sounds of those rotors spinning in the wind overhead. However, I see a distinctive lack of footprints on the ground as well. They could've covered their tracks, so I have no idea how to find them now.

My immediate concern for now are the bodies of the Sawsbuck, who didn't even get a proper burial. Pokemon are sometimes used for the purpose of food, but that happens not too often. Morals also play a big part in the restriction of hunting Pokemon, as they are essentially sentient beings.

That topic is still up for debate, as most humans don't really seem to mind slaughtering things that are just as understanding and sentient as they are. Hell, if you look on the news lately, more and more strikes have been about how the government should take action to increase the supply of viable food in the form of Pokemon meat. Fucking Xenophobes.

Personally I'm against eating Pokemon as animals can be found in large supply around the forest, but I don't say no to the odd slice of Pokemon flesh. Pokemon don't lay eggs that often, and they have human levels of mate picking standards, so they are usually unable to respond to mass hunting.

But, I feel that deaths of Pokemon caused by humans should be avoided if possible. Haven't we already caused enough damage with our influence? We're polluting natural habitats, clearing out forests, and killing anything that dares to cross our path. When will humanity learn that violence isn't always the right choice?

But then, there's the question regarding the burial procedures. How would one teenage boy dig eight sizable holes with only a hunting knife? Simple, he doesn't. Summoning one of my large laser shooting skulls, I mentally command it to dig the holes by closing it's jaws around the spots I designate for it.

It doesn't take the large white dragon skull much time to follow through with the order, as eight large, albeit crude holes have been dug into the ground before me. I heave the corpses of the Sawsbuck herd into the holes, one for each body.

"God, these guys are heavy." I grunt as I push the first two bodies of the Sawsbuck, sans their antlers, into the pits I had my weapon dig for me. Giving up, I decide to summon five more skulls and have them move the bodies into the pits instead.

I command them not to bite the bodies, as I don't need them to be mangled up more than they already are. God knows whoever did this did a fucking good job of that already. As the skulls pile the dirt back in, I feel a morbid sense of satisfaction that I have given the Sawsbuck at least some form of burial. In a way, what I'm doing feels right to me.

Once the earth has been placed back into the holes, I will the skulls to vanish and take my hunting knife, cutting loose some branches from the nearby trees. Taking some vines growing along the sides of the tree trunks, I fashion eight crude crosses and place them in front of each earthen mound.

When I take a look at my handiwork, I see eight small graves right in front of me. They are basic, but they do get the point across. Sighing sadly for the inhumane loss of life here, I place a hand to my heart and kneel down on one knee to honor the deceased.

"Here lies eight unnamed Sawsbuck, adding further to the list of the lives taken by petty human greed. May they find peace in the afterlife, and may any god that's listening have mercy on their souls." I chant out loud, closing my eyes for the duration of my speech.

It's sad to see life snuffed out like this, especially since Pokemon like these had absolutely no chance when going against a coordinated attack with armed humans. It wasn't even a fair fight. I get up, opening my eyes anew to see that the sun is already setting and painting the sky an orange hue.

"Damn, it's this late already? I need to move, and fast." I mutter to myself, quickly finding the boar tracks from before and giving chase to the wild animals. Soon enough, I see the herd of boar littering the forest area. However, they're quickly notified of my presence and they scatter in all directions.

"For fuck's sake, I have no time for this crap." I sigh in annoyance, forgetting in my own haste that these animals are easily spooked by sudden movements. Welp, might as well rely on my own abilities for this one. I haven't used these weapons for a long time now, so this might be a good warm up.

Summoning a smaller version of the dragon skull, I mentally command it to follow one of the larger animals. It complies, sending a warm ping of energy to my hand before taking off at a relatively fast speed. It easily catches up, hovering alongside it and scaring the animal into changing course.

However, in it's own panic, the boar fails to realize that I'm right in the direction it wants to go, knife at the ready. It tries to dodge me, but I don't let it escape my grasp. A quick stab to the jugular of the animal is all it takes to send it sprawling to the floor with a weak squeal, bleeding profusely from the neck.

"Nice." I smile at my hand-eye coordination, eyeing my own hand with glee. Well, I haven't let my magic get too rusty. Closing in on the weakly kicking animal in it's death throes, I begin to harvest the corpse of the boar for it's meat.

Soon enough, I decide that I have enough food and teleport back to the edge of camp. The team is still there, all of the Pokemon safe and sound before me. Grinning, I even see that a campfire, already alight, has been set up for me. I gotta thank Chell and Nesia for saving me time later.

"Hello, Sir!" It's Lily and Dani that are the first to notice me, the two Grass Types stopping their Energy Ball training to greet me. "Heya, you two. Hungry yet?" I ask them, reaching for my bag and laying out some tools for me to get started.

"You bet I am! Geez, training takes a lot outta me!" Dani sighs, already looking the part of a starved Cottonee. "Well I am pretty hungry, Sir." Lily nods in agreement, eyeing the pot hungrily as she says so. I don't blame them. In order to replenish energy used for moves, rest and nutrients are a must.

"Hold on for a bit, and I'll whip something up fast. Don't go anywhere now." I assure them jokingly, taking some berries that I had held onto for a bit and tossing them into a pan. Putting the pan on the heat, I add some sugar and fry away, just letting the fruit simmer on a medium heat to caramelize.

"We're not gonna go anywhere, you dumbass." I hear Belladonna say behind me, getting me to turn around and see the Venipede along with Taylor having already approached the fire. "I see that you have begun the preparations for dinner, Jay. It already looks quite appetizing." Katrina comments from the side, licking her chops at the berries cooking in the pan.

"You bet it's gonna be. Only the best for my beautiful mate." I grin teasingly at the Liepard, who blushes and giggles as she hears my compliment. "Ugh, stop it with the mushy stuff!" Taylor groans once she hears me shoot that little remark, which gets me to smirk.

"Not gonna happen." I chuckle, returning to my work just in time for Nova, Chell and Nesia to stop by. "Hiya, Mister Jay!" Chell greets me, her happiness plain to hear. "Heya, kiddo." I greet her, focusing on cooking for now as the rest of the team gather round the fire.

As the berries are cooking away, I decide to ready the pot for the boar meat. Cutting up the meat, I skewer some of the flesh on metallic barbecue sticks that I had carried around with me. Placing the skewers of meat around the fire, I then set my sights on the ham, placing that around the fire as well.

"Are you making the same thing again, Jay?" Alita sighs, her question pretty much answering itself at this point. "Well, I like sticking to what I know and love. Like you." I reply, getting her to blush at my sudden cheeky remark.

"S-saying that's not going to make me like you more, you idiot..." The Unfezant huffs, averting her gaze when I look back to gauge her reaction. Not gonna lie, her tsundere mode is simply adorable to watch. "Heh, looks like someone ain't bein' honest with herself." Cleo chuckles from the side, making a few others snicker as well.

This of course, garners Alita's attention. "Hey! Can it!" She growls defensively, glaring at the offending giggling Pokemon. Namely, Safia and Dani. "Heh, priceless." The Zoroark laughs in the face of the venomous glare of the Unfezant, getting the Cottonee to agree.

"You said it, Safia!" Dani adds, furthering Alita's embarrassment. "Why I oughta..." She growls, before I stop her. "Hey, now. No need for a fight, okay? Save that for friendly bouts. I don't need you hurting each other, just because of some silly accusations." I remind her, Alita nodding begrudgingly.

"Ugh, fine." She sighs and backs down, albeit a little unwillingly. Noticing her unwillingness, I grin and give her neck and head a nice rubbing. "Hey! What the hell, you idiot!?" Alita yelps, her tone showing no shortage of hostility towards me.

"I'm just making up for asking you to back down. This is payment enough, right?" I chuckle, not in the least bit undeterred by her anger and malice as I pet her head gently, which gets her let out a few involuntary coos of delight. She quickly blushes in embarrassment soon after, and she huffs.

"You… didn't have to do this, you know. I wasn't asking for it..." The Unfezant pauses after she utters the first word, muttering the rest just loud enough for me to hear. "I know. But an important girl like you deserves it. At least, that's how I see it." I reply, getting a teasing 'ooh' out of Safia.

"Oh, man! Come on, Alita! Jay just said he likes you! Now's your chance!" The Zoroark eggs the Flying Type on, who glares daggers at the lupine in return. "W-what chance!? Shut up, Safia!" Alita groans, hiding her blush and trying to conceal her flustered look behind her wings as I continue to treat her.

"Mister Jay, don't you remember something you promised us earlier?" I hear Chell asking me from the side, seeing her and Nesia eyeing me and Alita with a look of jealousy and slight hurt. "Master is so mean, Chell. Acting like he doesn't remember." Nesia sighs wistfully, making me roll my eyes.

"Of course I didn't forget, you two. C'mere." I grin, beckoning the two starter Pokemon over to my side. Chell smiles widely as she bounds over and claims one of my lap spots, while Nesia is content to lay her head atop the other side. The Servine and the Dewott nuzzle their heads into my lap, content smiles on their faces.

"Yay!" Chell cheers giddily, snuggling my thigh as Nesia looks up at me, her cute smile making my heart damn near fail on me. "D'aww, now that's just adorable." Cleo smiles from where she's sitting, the Flaafy finding quite the sense of joy from what she's seeing.

"Mister Jay, there's something we want to tell you. We've thought about what you said earlier, and we've made up our minds!" Chell suddenly announces, to which I raise an eyebrow. They're most likely referring to the talk I gave them.

"Oh, yeah? What's your decision?" I ask them, Nesia speaking up first. "You are so kind, Master. You also care for me so very much. You took me in when I was weak, and I cannot thank you enough. I love you." Nesia tells me, blushing as she tells me that with her cute smile. God, her blush is making things worse! She's even cuter now!

"Ness, no fair! I was gonna tell Mister Jay that I loved him too!" Chell pouts at her friend, who giggles as she sees me blush at what they had said. "Oh, yeah! Ness told you already, but I love you too! You're so supportive, and you're really nice to be around!" Chell adds, getting me to chuckle as I kiss the two on their heads and causing them to blush deeper.

"And I love the both of you too." I grin, Safia cheering from the side. "Alright! You've seen it here, everyone! These two brave Pokemon just confessed their undying love to this pervert, and he accepted!" The Zoroark shouts joyfully, the rest of the team smiling warmly as well. Even Taylor's not immune to the love in the air, as she decides to simply watch with a neutral look.

"As Jay's first mate, I hereby welcome the both of you I hope you'll lavish our loving Master well." Katrina smirks cheekily at the two starter Pokemon, who avert their gazes as they get the meaning behind the Liepard's words. Nova simply giggles as she hears that, getting the sexual implication right away.

"Oh my…" Leah gasps, blushing as red as Lily and Dani are as they get the meaning of what Katrina had said. "Well, looks like they ain't ready to love 'im like that just yet." Cleo smiles, while Safia laughs hard at the sight of the blushing starter duo.

"Ugh, gross! Save that for when we're not listening, sickos!" Taylor groans, Belladonna smiling wryly as she shakes her head at her friend. "Don't judge, Taylor. Jay can have his own tastes in women, ya know." She reminds her friend, who simply rolls her eyes. In response, I smack the feline over the head lightly.

"Kat, no scaring them. They only have to if they want to." I sigh, assuring Chell and Nesia that Katrina is simply fooling around. "You're such a killjoy, Master." The Liepard huffs, teasing me with her choice of words. "But I'm your lovable killjoy, kitten." I wink her way, getting her to blush as she giggles.

 **Author's Note: Finally, Chell and Nesia join the harem! However, their lemon scenes may come a little later than you might think. After all, they're not as sexually active as a certain Liepard Jay knows and loves. Anyways, the team roster is down below, and I hope you all have a wonderful time of day!**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	74. Chapter 73

Chapter 73

[Jay]

Dinner is ready soon enough, and everyone's eating up. Chell and Nesia stay by my side, fully reveling in their newfound object of affection. For now, they're content to stay in my lap, flashing glances of affection and nuzzling my chest every so often. I have to say, they're hecka cute when they do this.

"Mister Jay, I'm so happy..." Chell giggles dreamily, placing her full trust in me while she places her paws on my chest. Nesia smiles as well, wordlessly showing her own love as she uses her vines to touch my neck. It kinds tickles, and I touch the Servine's appendage in kind.

"I know, Chell. You two have shown me lots of that already." I chuckle, patting her head along with Nesia's as I plant some more light kisses atop their heads. "Master's love makes my heart feel so warm..." Nesia sighs, nuzzling my cheek back as I lower my head to nuzzle her.

"Yay! I want some love, too!" Chell cheers, nuzzling my other side with vigor. Alita has been watching us for some time now, and she averts her gaze with disappointment and longing as she backs away from us. If only she'd admit to loving me, the silly Unfezant.

"I wish to receive Jay's love, too." Katrina pouts, nearing the three of us with a pleading look in her eyes. "Right, right. Don't worry, I don't have any intentions of leaving my favorite kitten out." I reply, patting the Liepard atop her head as she purrs happily in light of my gestures of affection.

"They look so happy together, don't they?" Lily adds, Dani rolling her eyes at the four of us. "I guess so." The Cottonee replies dismissively to the rhetorical question of her fellow Grass Type, munching on her share as she tries to ignore the lovey-dovey scene.

"Love is such a wonderful thing is it not?" Nova comments, eating her own share as Taylor makes a gagging sound. "Ugh, could you not? Others are trying to eat over here." The Sewaddle groans, Alita sighing as well. "They are pretty annoying, huh?" The Unfezant adds, agreeing with the comment.

However, this just gets Safia and Dani to snicker at the Flying Type. "That's just because you're both jealous." The Zoroark smirks, Belladonna nodding as she sides with the lupine. "Yeah, you two. You just want Jay to love you too, don't you?" She teases them, which gets the other two to glare daggers at the joking accusations.

"Hell no! I'd never want this pervert to even look at me!" The Sewaddle is quick to refute those words, although she does averts her gaze when I look her way. "This idiot has enough mates already! I don't wanna be a part of that!" Alita also denies what Safia said, yet her blush tells me otherwise.

"Well, ya better make up yer mind soon, Ali. Cuz otherwise, Jay just might turn ya down." Cleo warns the Unfezant, said Flying Type groaning as she rolls her eyes. "Like hell I'll ask this idiot that!" She denies the notion immediately, making Cleo simply sigh as she shakes her head.

"Maybe I should ask..." Leah mumbles to herself, a blush painting her cheeks as well. Seeing her like this, Safia is quick to poke her half sister about it. "Hey, Leah. If those two could do it, then maybe you should give it a try. Jay seems to be open to suggestions, after all." The Zoroark grins cheekily, to which Leah's face suddenly grows a few extra shades of darker red.

"S-safia! What are you even suggesting!?" Leah yelps, her flustered state only serving to egg the Zoroark on. "Well, I'm just acting in the best interest of my sister." Safia replies, acting her good intentions out as always. Or is she actually serious this time? I have no freaking idea…

"I'm seeing more red than blue over here!" Dani snickers, eating her share of berries as Lily simply shakes her head at the Cottonee. "You shouldn't tease her like that, Dani. It's making her really uncomfortable." The Petilil tells off her friend, who sighs as she smiles wryly at Lily.

"C'mon, Lily! Have some fun!" Dani replies, getting a frown from said Petilil as her words fall on deaf ears once more. Those two, despite their widely different views, seem to get along regardless. "I am so sorry, Leah. Dani's a little more than happy to tease others about embarrassing stuff like this..." The small Grass Type apologizes to the Lucario, who smiles as she shakes her head.

"There's no need to apologize, Lily. I completely understand how having a close friend like that feels." The lupine replies, getting Lily to smile in kind as they converse with each other. They both seem to find solace in each other, having rather similar personalities.

"But, leafing the both of you alone is out of the question. You two are way too cute to not mess with." I butt in, causing the both of them to blush and avert their gazes from my own. "You really think so, Sir?" Lily asks me timidly, Leah stealing glances to try and read my expression.

"Yes, I do. You're super cute." I reply, grinning as I pet the two on the head. Both timid souls smile happily when they receive my gesture of affection, their gazes locked on mine again. "God damn it, you idiot! Did you seriously make that pun!?" Alita groans, having picked up on my joke.

"Yes. And I do not regret ruffling your feathers one bit." I grin as I further my puns, making the Unfezant sigh in exasperation as Belladonna and Cleo giggle. "You're such a dumbass, Jay." Belladonna speaks up, while Taylor is less than amused.

"Come on, you ass! Stop making those stupid jokes!" The Sewaddle groans, while the Flaafy snorts in mirth. "Well, Ah can't say no ta good jokin'." Cleo smirks, her smile showing me her appreciation of a little punny joke. Chell is giggling the most, laughing outright in my lap.

"Come on, Leah! If you like Mister Jay that way, just tell him! It'll be fine!" Once she's done laughing, Chell assures the timid Lucario out of the blue. "I agree. Jay has multiple wives already. One more is acceptable." Nesia adds, her clam expression unchanging as she says so.

This gets the Lucario to blush as she hides her face in her paws, and I to choke on my food for a little bit before I force the stuff down my gullet. As Leah tries to hide her embarrassment, Safia and Dani only find further amusement in her suffering as evidenced by their giggling.

"Geez, Ness. Talking about you girls being my wives like that..." I cough into my hand, the Servine looking at me with a hint of confusion as she tilts her head. Although, the sight of her bearing my child is pretty romantic. Wait, could she even bear my child? And how would the kid be born?

"But is the word wife not used to name a girl who is betrothed to a human she loves?" Nesia asks me, getting me to pause when she says that. Well, we are kind of in a relationship and all. But I'm kind of against being a husband this soon…!

"There is a human term for a mate, then. It sounds nice, to be referred to as a wife." Katrina speaks up with a loving smile, having overheard what the Grass Snake had said. "Woah! Being Jay's wife sounds great!" Chell adds, agreeing with her fellow harem members right off the bat.

"But being a husband is a huge commitment! I don't think I'm ready!" I blurt out, blushing tomato red as I try to talk them out of it. In response, Katrina coils her tail around my arm to grab my attention. "But we are prepared to become your wives, Jay. We wish to be engaged with you, regardless of responsibility." The Liepard assures me, getting Chell to nod.

"Don't worry, Mister Jay! We'll take responsibility together!" Chell grins, Nesia nodding in agreement to the Dewott's words. "Yes, Master. Or should I say, my husband?" The Servine adds, solidifying their willingness for us to be together as lovers.

"Okay, fine. With what you said earlier, you've got me convinced." I admit defeat, my own will to resist caving in and letting the three lovely Pokemon win this one. "Yay! I'm Jay's wife now!" Chell cheers with glee, hugging me tight and nuzzling my chest with her cheeks.

"I am very pleased that you see it our way, Master." Katrina smiles, her tail curling around my hand gently this time, which gets me to give it a squeeze. "Yes, husband. I promise that as your wife, I will make you as happy as possible." Nesia speaks up, holding my finger with her small hands.

"And I'll be sure to be a good husband to you all." I reply, getting the three of them to smile happily as I kiss them on the head. "And as husband, I'd like to ask you three to eat up. Your food's getting cold, and I see Safia trying to cut some meat away for herself." I inform them, to which they nod.

"Hey! Don't rat me out like that!" Said dark furred lupine huffs, to which I raise any eyebrow. "And who's stealing food?" I remind her of her own crimes, which causes Safia to stick her tongue out at me playfully. Leah simply sighs, while Nova and Chell giggle in light of the banter being exchanged.

"Hello, there!" I freeze, suddenly hearing the voice of another human being in the general area. Looking to the source of the voice, I see that a human is waving to me just beyond the line of bushes and trees around our site. Shit, did he see me or the girls being intimate with each other?

"Did he see us, Mister Jay?" Chell grows nervous, whispering to me as I look to her and try my best to keep clam. "I have no idea. But if he did, we're in deep shit. He might report us to the authorities." I reply, my eyes never leaving the strange figure approaching us from the woods.

"Heya." I simply say, trying to conceal my panic as I wave back. The man steps out of the woods, his features now more visible in the light of the fire. He's a cheerful looking guy, with a slightly chubby face and a backpack slung on his back. He's wearing a short sleeved shirt and long pants, with a head of short, black hair standing upright.

"Wait a sec. Jack? How did you get here?" I suddenly realize who this guy is, and said figure beams as he runs over to my side. "Jay! I thought it was you!" The chubby teenager cheers as he sits down next to me, eyeing my roster of Pokemon as he makes himself comfortable.

"Wait, you know this guy?" Safia asks me, the newer team members equally as confused as to who this fat guy is. "Yeah. He saved my ass from some gun wielding goons a while back with his own Pokemon. He isn't from here, so he found me by accident." I explain to the Zoroark, who raises an eyebrow at the guy.

"He doesn't seem like a bad fella." Cleo comments, having just finished chewing her mouthful. "Pretty stupid looking, though." Dani adds, getting Lily to frown at the Cottonee. "Don't say that, Dani! You'll hurt his feelings!" The Petilil tells off her friend, not pleased by Dani's mean remark.

"Woah, awesome! You caught a Volcarona!?" Jack shouts, looking over Nova with a look of curiosity and awe. Nova seems to be a little uncomfortable as she gets eyeballed by the guy, most likely due to her past with eager men out to stick it to her.

"Jack, this is Nova. She's not that comfortable with guys looking at her, so I suggest you keep you eyes to yourself." I tell the eager Trainer, who realizes how uncomfortable he's making my teammate. "Oh, sorry! It's just that I've never seen one before!" He apologizes, before addressing Nova.

"I have to say, you look even more awesome than your pictures! You're so majestic and colorful!" Despite my warning, Jack can't help but praise the awesome floating beauty before him. This makes Nova smiles as a blush blooms on her face from the praise, making me frown at the other male.

"Why thank you, Jack. I'm flattered that you think so." The Volcarona speaks up, her words coming off as her own native language to Jack. Frowning, Jack sighs as he crosses his arms. "If only there was a way to understand you..." He grumbles, making me facepalm at his stupidity.

"Dude, you have a Rotomdex. Remember?" I remind the guy, who suddenly jerks his head up at that. "Oh, yeah! Thanks for the heads up!" He grins, pulling out his trusty Alolan Pokedex. "Rotom, could ya help me translate?" He asks the device, which springs to life and nods at the Trainer.

"But of course!" The Pokedex chimes, before letting a small red device attach itself to Jack's ear. "There. This should help you understand what these Pokemon are saying." Rotom replies, before sliding itself back into Jack's pocket. In response to this, I shake my head with a wry smile.

"Woah! What was that?" Dani gasps, Nesia's eyes sparkling with curiosity as she eyes the Rotomdex sticking out of Jack's pocket. "It's my Pokedex! It helps me navigate, and it helps me translate Pokespeech!" He grins, Nesia's expression shifting to one of amazement as Katrina raises an eyebrow.

"I see. That is quite the impressive device." The Liepard comments, the Rotomdex floating up to acknowledge the praise. "Why thank you, Liepard!" It chimes, to which Belladonna looks to it with confusion. The rest of the team are now also eyeing the device with curious glances as well.

"Wait, how does it even do that? It's like the thing's alive." The Venipede speaks up, to which I sigh and roll my eyes. "That's because it is. There's a Rotom in that thing, Bella." I sigh, Lily looking a little worried as she hears me explain. Meanwhile, Cleo also seems to be a little concerned about this issue.

"Then can Rotom even get out? Being inside that thing doesn't look too comfortable." The Petilil frowns, which gets the Ghost and Electric Type to smile and shake it's face along the screen of the device it's occupying in order to convey a no.

"Worry not, little Petilil! I am a Ghost and Electric Type Pokemon, which specializes in taking over electronic appliances made by humans! This is my species' natural behavior, so I am not hurt in any way by this device!" The Pokemon assures Lily, as Jack smiles at the Grass Type when she says that.

"A Ghost and Electric Type?" Nesia repeats, eyes shining in awe as she observes the Pokemon within the device. "Yup! He's got a form when he isn't occupying anything, too! Wanna see?" Jack suggests, the Servine quick to nod in order to sate her own curiosity.

"Sure! I-if he wants to leave, that is..." Lily speaks her own mind as well, before realizing what she said and returns to her timidity. "Ooh, ooh! I wanna see!" Chell adds, nodding her head up and down quickly. "No problem! Rotom, care to oblige?" Jack asks his Pokedex, who smiles wider as it hears that.

"Very well, then!" It proclaims, before we all hear a sound of crackling electricity. Seconds later, we see a small, orange figure materialize before us. It looks like two spinning tops stuck together, with two lightning bolts for arms. It's eyes are a shade of light blue, with a white outline surrounding it.

"Woah!" Chell gasps, initially taken aback by the sudden appearance of the small Ghost Type. "Hello, everyone. I am Rotom, Jack's analytical partner. Nice to meet you all!" The small Pokemon chirps, making me raise an eyebrow. I've never seem one for real myself, so this is a welcome experience.

"He's really cool, right?" Jack smiles wide, gesturing to his friend as I smile in kind. "Let me guess. He also reminds you when to do things?" I ask him jokingly, making the guy rub the back of his head sheepishly. "Eh he he..." He laughs while Rotom nods, getting me to sigh. I knew it.

"Is the guy always this dumb?" Taylor speaks up, making me shrug. "I dunno. What do I look like, his mom?" I chuckle, Jack smiling at the Sewaddle as she makes that comment. "He's not my mom! My mom's back at home." He informs the Bug Type, who rolls her eyes as my sarcasm flies over his head.

"That's not what he meant." She deadpans, Belladonna giggling at the display of stupidity. "He's almost as dumb as you, Jay!" She comments, to which I feign hurt. "Hey! I'm not that stupid!" I reply, Jack laughing as he looks around the campsite.

"Not gonna lie, Bella has a good point there. You are pretty stupid." Safia throws her two cents in on the matter, making me sigh as I place a hand to my chest. "That hurt my feelings, damn it..." I sniff and Safia snickers along with the Venipede, before Jack gasps as he sees Leah and Safia.

"Woah! You got a Lucario and Zoroark too!?" He gapes, looking at the two Pokemon with a shine of amazement in his eyes. So now he notices them? "Well, yeah. I got them not too long ago, though. They decided to join." I reply, Jack turning to me with a surprised expression.

"They did!? How did you convince them!?" He asks me, causing me to shrug. "I dunno. I saved them, and they just so happened to have the same goals I did. They wanted to become stronger, so I opted to help them out." I reply, Leah smiling as she hears me say that.

"Well, I suppose he's telling the truth. He's not doing too good a job of it, though!" Safia snickers, which gets me to smirk wryly and fold my arms. "You're one to talk." I shoot back, Leah shaking her head at her sister. In response, Jack's expression seems to take on a darker note for a split second, before he grins anew.

"I see. So, how'd you save 'em?" He asks, although that doesn't really seem to be the information he wants to know from this exchange. Eh, I guess I can trust him with the nitty-gritty of this story. He doesn't look like a bad guy. As such, I begin my explanation.

"Well, these two, along with Nova here, were prisoners of an underground fighting ring. I busted them out with help from the authorities." I tell him the simpler version of the tale, Leah nodding to affirm my words. Safia nods as well, grinning as she slugs me lightly in the shoulder.

"I hate to say it, but he's telling the truth. Jay got us out of a real pinch back then, so we're sticking with him to get better at kicking ass. Gotta make sure no one ever captures us again." Safia replies, making me wince from the impact of her paw colliding with my arm.

"Safia, that hurt!" I whine in an exaggerated manner, getting the Zoroark to grin as she hears me complain. "That's what you get for not letting me steal that meat." She replies simply, getting me to roll my eyes as I slice away some ham and hand it to her on a plate.

"There. Happy now?" I ask her, the Zoroark nodding happily as she grabs the plate from my hands. "That's better!" She grins, taking a piece with her claws and biting into it. She chews with a look of delight on her face, savoring the taste of my cooking.

"Sho good!" She moans, Leah simply sighing as she observes her sister chomp and chew with vigor. "Safia, that was very rude of you." The Lucario berates Safia with a frown, which causes said Zoroark to direct her gaze towards her sister at that remark.

"But this stuff tastes too good to pass up, sis!" Safia retorts, before taking another mouthful of the ham I had prepared. "Well, she's gotta point there. This is really good." Belladonna nods in agreement to the lupine's words, nibbling on her almost fully consumed share of meat.

"You got that right. This idiot know how to cook at least." Alita butts in, pecking away at her share of berries and meat. "You're welcome." I grin cheekily at the offending Flying Type, getting me a blush in response. Meanwhile, Jack eyes my cooked meat with hunger.

"Can I have some?" He asks me, to which I shrug and use my knife to cut him a portion. "Sure thing, dude. I'll assume you haven't eaten yet, huh?" I raise an eyebrow his way, making him grin sheepishly as he rubs the back of his head.

"Was it really that obvious?" He asks me in response to my question, which gets him a nod and a sigh. "Yeah, I haven't eaten. I was waiting to find a nice camping site before I sat down and ate, ya know?" The Trainer explains, before coming to another realization all on his own this time.

"Wait a sec! My team hasn't eaten, either!" He gasps, before pulling out some of his Pokeballs from his own belt. "Come on, guys! Dinner time!" The chubby teenager shouts, throwing all four capsules into the air and releasing his roster of Pokemon.

Out come a Venusaur, a Tyranitar, his Mimikyu, and a Slowbro. The Venesaur looks around himself, deciding that there aren't any threats before snorting and laying down. The Tyranitar sits himself down right off the bat, his expression one of friendliness that you wouldn't expect from such a towering beast of his kind.

The Mimikyu lets off a frightened squeak once she lays eyes on us, hiding behind her Trainer for comfort. Finally, the Slowbro acts as most of it's kind does: it's smile and expression aloof and oblivious as it lies on it's stomach, content to utter a singular word to prove its own existence.

"Hiiii..." He drags out the word slowly, like he's caught up in slow motion or something. Hell, even his eyes are blinking slowly! "What's up with him?" Alita asks, getting Jack to shrug. "He's always been like that for as long as I had him. I don't mind though." The guy grins, patting his companion atop his head.

While Alita and Taylor have taken to deadpan staring at the slow and shell tailed Water Type, the Tyranitar has taken to introducing himself to the others around him. "Hey, everyone! What's up?" He grins just like Jack, raising a hand to say hi.

"Hiya! My name's Chell!" The Dewott is quick to reply to the guy, her grin wide as well. "Sup, Chell! I'm the Tyranitar of this group, but you can call me Ty! That's what Jack calls me most of the time, anyway." Ty replies, smiling as he shakes Chell's hand in a display of greeting.

"He does seem to be quite the cheerful fellow, now does he?" Katrina comments, most of the others smiling in response to his almost infectious optimism. "Yeah, and it's freaking me out to be honest." I reply to the Liepard's remark, getting a giggle from the feline as she hears that.

"He does seem like a nice guy." Leah adds, while Nova nods in agreement to that. "It seems so, if his actions are to be believed." The Volcarona throws her two cents in on the matter, as she observes the large reptile with interest. Well, he is a hell of a lot different from others of his kind that I've seen before.

"Nice to meet ya, big guy! Name's Safia." The Zoroark smirks at the Rock and Dark Type, who smiles back that the lupine. "A friendly Zoroark! Now that I don't see often!" Ty booms, his voice loud and humorous as Safia gives him a wry grin.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asks the big lug, who grins as he holds out his hand to shake hers. "Well, I don't see many Zoroark at all. And I see friendly ones even less!" He chuckles, Safia reaching out her own paw to accept his offer of friendship and shaking hands with the Tyranitar.

Once he lets go, Safia winces a little as she rubs her paw. "Yeesh, Ty! That's a strong grip you've got there." She remarks, Ty rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Whoops! I forget my own strength at times. Sorry about that, friend!" He apologizes, lowering his head slightly to Safia as he says so.

"Eh, no biggie. Just try not to crush my paw next time, alright? I kinda need that." She replies, Ty laughing it off as he nods. Meanwhile, the Venusaur simply observes the goings on of our little group, opting to simply stay put and eye the food present.

"So, this is stuff we can eat, right?" Ty asks all of a sudden, looking at Jack as he points to the food. Well, what's left of it. There is still half a leg of ham left, and some rogue kebabs roasting away on the flames. "Well, yeah! Jay was nice enough to share, so dig in!" Jack replies, making me sigh as I shrug. I never said that, but whatever. I don't mind, and the team don't seem to mind the extra guests either.

"Yes! Sweet, delicious meat!" The Tyranitar yells with joy, tearing off a large chunk of ham and digging into it with no hesitation. The Venusaur uses his vines to grab a hold of a few kebabs I had set up, before he uses the appendages to slide the food off the sticks and into his large gullet.

The Slowbro isn't slow at all when it comes to eating, it would seem. He is quick to uses his latent psychic ability to levitate some berries over to himself, letting each one float into his mouth at a time as he chews and swallows quickly.

"Jack? I'm hungry..." The Mimikyu whispers, getting Jack's attention as he stares down at the costumed Ghost Type. "Go ahead, Mimi. This stuff is for you, so dig in." Jack assures her gently as he smiles, causing Mimi to nod as she timidly tries to reach for some of the food surrounding the fire.

Fearful for the most likely flammable nature of her costume, I slice off some ham and hand it to the small Ghost Type. "Here ya go, little one." I grab her attention by placing the plate of food next to her, which does initially scare her off. Mimi resorts to staring at me from the safety of Jack's leg, which makes me frown.

"Yeesh, am I really that scary?" I sigh, Safia smirking as she hears me ask myself that. "Well, you are pretty suspicious." The Zoroark teases me, more than happy to rub it in my face for her own amusement. This gets Taylor's attention as well, who snickers as she hears her insult me.

"She's got a point there! You do look like an ass, on top of being one." The Sewaddle laughs, as I grin wryly in response to their teasing. "Gee, thanks for the confidence booster, you two." I reply sarcastically, Dani laughing as well upon noticing the two take a crack at me again. Katrina giggles as she sees me become the butt of the joke, content to sit there and enjoy her meal.

"Come on, you two! Don't insult him too much, that's my job!" Belladonna pitches in as well, the three laughing together as they revel in my misery. "You too, Bella!? Man, you three are the worst..." I feign hurt, huffing in an exaggerated manner as I cross my arms.

"Not my fault you're an ass, Jay." Taylor retorts, to which I shrug nonchalantly. "Eh, true. But this ass cares about you." I reply to her jokingly mean comment, which earns me a blush along with the Sewaddle's laughter stopping all of a sudden as her face shows her uncertainty to my words.

"Well, whatever. That still doesn't help the fact that you're an ass." The Bug Type mumbles, her expression now caught between taunting and being flustered. Her condescending smirk is still there, but the blush kinda nullifies that. God, since when did she become this cute?

"What's up with you?" Belladonna asks the Bug Type, who quickly lets her smile dissipate as she glares at the Venipede. "Nothing. Just wondering why he's such an ass." She replies, while Belladonna simply eyes the Sewaddle weirdly as I shrug.

"U-um, thank you..." I hear from where I had put the plate down for Mimi, getting me to turn around to see the small Mimikyu staring at me with no shortage of apprehension and uncertainty as she takes the plate from where I had put it onto the grass.

In order to avoid spooking her, I simply nod in order to show her that I had heard her. "No problem." I reply, the small Pokemon jumping a little when I say that. However, she quickly nods and skips back over to Jack, who eyes me with a smile of gratitude. That little Pokemon's pretty cute for a Ghost.

"Mister Jay!" I hear Chell call out to me, the Dewott tugging on my pant leg for extra emphasis as she eyes me with those adorable puppy dog eyes of hers. "Yeah, kiddo? What do ya need?" I ask the starter Pokemon, who points to my lap, now having reformed once I had sat myself down.

"I wanna cuddle with you, Mister Jay!" Chell replies, her look one of longing as she approaches me. "You got it, Chell. But first, let me do... this!" I grin, hoisting the Dewott into the air and holding her up like a parent would their child. Chell giggles as she gets lifted into the air, making her appear all the cuter.

"Nooo, Mister Jay! Put me down! I wanna cuddle!" Chell voices her protest, although her giggling and her wide smile isn't helping her case at all. "Chell is so energetic." Nesia smiles, coming closer to me as well as she secures a spot in my lap as fast as she can.

"You too, Ness?" I sigh with a wry grin, placing Chell in my lap as well and letting the two of them lie against my chest. However, this garners Katrina's attention. The feline sees this display of intimacy and pouts, slinking over to me to voice her complaints.

"Jay, I would like to spend some time being intimate with you as well." The Liepard huffs, to which I nod and grin as I tap Chell and Nesia lightly atop their heads. "Listen, you two. Kat should have a turn herself, wouldn't you agree? You two had your turn earlier." I remind the starter Pokemon, who reluctantly leave the comfort of my embrace.

"Okay, Mister Jay..." Chell nods, visibly saddened by what I had decided to do. "As you wish, Master. It's only fair..." Nesia frowns, also seeming to be quite discontent that she had her cuddling time taken from her despite her agreement that it was the right thing to do.

"Don't worry about it, you two. You'll have all the time in the world to cuddle later. I'm not going anywhere, after all." I chuckle, patting their heads in order to assure them of that. "Yay! I'll wait for you then!" Chell smiles happily as she says so, Nesia nodding as she smiles in reply to my head pats.

"Jay, I had almost forgotten how warm you truly are..." Katrina purrs contentedly, nuzzling my chest with no shortage of affection as I rub my hands along her body and scratch her chin occasionally. "And I've almost forgotten how furry you are, Kat." I chuckle, continuing my ministrations as she sighs blissfully.

"Jay, are you always this close to your team members?" Jack asks me, looking very suspicious and concerned by the personal space that my three lovers have been happy to share with me. Well, it looks like we have another law abiding citizen watching. In response to this, Katrina simply smiles slyly at the chubby teenager.

"We simply appreciate him very much, Jack." The Liepard says, before leaving it at that and continuing to enjoy herself as she rests comfortably in my lap. "We just like our Master a lot. It's natural for Pokemon to be close to others they like." Nesia adds, smiling softly at me as she says that.

"Yeah! We like Mister Jay a lot! He's been nothing but nice to us!" Chell nods in agreement, before Katrina giggles at her fellow harem member's innocence. "However, he can be extremely harsh when the situation demands it..." She trails off suggestively, making me sigh as I lightly poke the Liepard's nose.

"For the record, tough love is a part of training. I can be nice when we're not. Like right now." I retort, rubbing the feline's ear gently and making her sigh happily as she melts into my lap like putty. Luckily, Jack is a little busy laughing to notice Chell and Nesia's faces going beet red when they get the innuendo behind Katrina's words.

"Oh, I see! You're really good friends, aren't you?" Jack smiles as he interprets the gestures in his own way, getting me to inwardly sigh in relief. Well, at least he isn't too bright. "Yup." I respond to his observations, while Ty is busy smacking on the last of the food along with Jack's Venusaur. They haven't been paying too much attention to the conversation, as they've been eating the entire time.

"Phew, that was tasty! Thanks, Jay!" Ty is quick to thank me, and Jack's Slowbro does the same. "Thaaaanksssss…" The Water and Psychic Type once again drags out the word, but still gets the message across. Meanwhile, the Venusaur curtly nods. In response to their thanks, I grin happily.

"No need for thanks, guys. Just glad you enjoyed." I chuckle, Ty laughing as he slaps me gently on the back. Well it does kinda sting, but it's bearable. "With food that good, I'm surprised you didn't charge us for it!" The Tyranitar grins jokingly, getting me to smirk as I raise an eyebrow at that remark.

"Hey, I might actually do that next time." I warn the big reptile, who simply booms with laughter again. Everyone else on my team is simply exchanging conversation with each other while we rest up, Ty deciding to join in on some of the talking himself.

"Hey, so what's it like in Alola?" I ask the other Trainer next to me, who smiles wide as he thinks about it. "Oh, it's awesome! There's fresh air, crystal clear seas and palms trees! Some of the trees are actual Pokemon, though." He laughs at that last bit, making me chuckle as well.

"Alolan Exeggutor, right?" I try to confirm the actual Pokemon species he's referring to, to which he grins and nods. "Hey, you sure know your Pokemon trivia!" He compliments me, and we spend the next hour chatting up a storm until we realize that it's getting late to keep staying up.

"It's getting late, wouldn't you agree?" I ask Jack, yawning as he yawns himself. "Yeah, I hear ya. Ty, keep first watch will ya?" He asks his Tyranitar to help out, the large Pokemon nodding in reply. "Sure thing, Jack!" The large reptile says, before plopping himself down on the floor to keep an eye out.

"Mister Jay, sleep with us!" Chell calls out to me, holding up my sleeping bag as Nesia also looks to me with a look of longing. How did they find my sleeping bag so fast!? Chuckling, I unfurl it and let the two starter Pokemon in before zipping it up and letting their heads poke out. I fall asleep quickly with Chell and Nesia by my side, the three of us snuggling against each other in the sleeping bag.

[Unknown]

"Damn it, why is he here?" I sigh, cursing the gods above as I peer through my binoculars. Lifting a finger to my earpiece, I contact the boss man to tell him the news. "Ah, hello. How goes the subject observation?" The voice on the other side is gruff and laced with fake warmth, as usual.

"Yeah, boss? Jack's found his way to the kid first." I inform him, which gets him to sigh in annoyance. "That is rather disconcerting. Very well, then. Retreat for now, and we shall discuss this later. Giovanni out." The man hangs up, and I click my tongue idly as I observe the boy for a couple more seconds before leaving. Jack… now that's a name I haven't heard of in a while.

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	75. Chapter 74

Chapter 74

[Jay]

I wake up peacefully this time, without much sweating or feelings of distress either. I crack open my eyes to find that the fire has long since been extinguished, as I catch sight of Leah keeping watch. The Lucario has taken to ranged training, using her Aura Sphere to take shots upwards in order to minimize noise made from the resulting explosions.

I can tell that she has been using Aura Sphere, because she's charging up another one of those explosive blue energy balls right now. Leah's focusing really hard this time around, opting to further increase the size of the actual orb of aura she'll be throwing.

"Ngh…!" The jackal grunts, as she's still trying to increase the size of the sphere even further by channeling more energy into it. She's focusing really hard, no doubt about it. Beads of sweat are trickling down her features, but she still perseveres and tries to increase the power of her attack.

Once she can't seem to contain the massive amount of energy she's holding between her paws, she lets it go, throwing the now basketball sized orb of aura skyward. It travels a good distance into the air before it dissipates into energy again, leaving the panting and sweaty Lucario to sit down and rest up.

"Nmm, Mister Jay..." Chell mumbles in her sleep, getting me to look down and see the Dewott using both her paws to hug my left arm. "Husband..." Nesia's not one to shy away from me either, using her own arms to hug my right. In response to this display of utter cuteness, I cannot help but chuckle.

"You two are so adorable." I comment, to which both Pokemon's smiles seem to grow a mite wider. Both of them have happy smiles on their faces as they slumber, making me smile and pet each girl on the head in return. Now that I'm looking around, I see Katrina curled up next to me as she sleeps.

"Alright, you two. Time to get up, now." I sigh, poking each sleeping starter on the cheek as I say so. In response to my words, Chell slowly cracks open her eyes. "Nmm… hmm? Is it morning already, Mister Jay?" The Dewott yawns, making me chuckle and rub her ears.

"Husband? Are we running late?" Nesia mumbles as she awakens as well, not even bothering to open her eyes to gaze my way. "No, but I'd rather we wake up a little earlier. Early bird catches the worm, and all." I suggest to the two, who promptly tighten their grips on my arms.

"Nooo, Jay. I wanna sleep with you more…." Chell whines, Nesia nodding as she cracks open her eyes for a bit. "I agree with Chell, my husband. As your wife, I demand that you sleep with us longer." The Servine adds, which gets me to chuckle and use my hands to rub their smaller bodies comfortingly.

"Alright, you win. I'll stay in bed with you two for a bit." I sigh in mock defeat, Chell giggling as she places one of her paws onto my chest. "Yay! You're the best, Mister Jay!" Chell cheers, Nesia smiling along with her fellow harem member.

"Husband is so understanding. It makes me very happy to be your wife." The Servine thanks me for relating to her side of the exchange, getting me to smile her way as I nuzzle her head with my own. "And I'm very happy to be your husband, Ness." I assure her, getting her to giggle at my actions.

"Jay! You're awake!" Leah gasps, seeming to have heard some tidbits of our little loving exchange. In response to her surprise, I chuckle as I address the Lucario. "Well, yeah. You were guarding us for the night, right?" I ask the jackal, who nods at the question.

"Well yes, I was. Jack's Tyranitar woke me up as per Safia's request, so the duty was more or less forced upon me." Leah frowns unhappily, seeming a little tired and annoyed due to her lack of sleep. So Safia asked for Ty to do that? Cheeky Zoroark, that one.

"Well, I got a good night's sleep because of you looking after the rest of us. Thanks for the help, Leah." I thank the Lucario, who promptly blushes a little at the compliment. "O-oh! Well, it was nothing Jay. I was simply doing my part." The lupine averts her gaze as she says so, getting me to shake my head and smile her way.

"But you did a real good job in keeping watch. Thanks for that, Leah. You're a big help." I chuckle as I look her way, which gets her to steal a glance back in my direction. "Well, if you say so..." She replies, smiling as her red face makes her all the more adorable. Who knew a normally stoic and reserved Lucario could be this damn cute!?

"Well, just rest up for now. I'll tell you when breakfast is ready, and we'll take a bath after that. I'll look after the camp in the meantime." I suggest, Leah giving me a look of uncertainty in response. "Are you sure, Jay? You seem to be a little… preoccupied at the moment." She points out, gesturing to the Dewott and Servine that have yet to release me from their loving embraces.

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'll still be able to look after everyone here, even with these two on me." I assure the concerned Lucario, who nods in compliance to my suggestion. "If you say so, Jay. I'll be heading to bed now." She excuses herself quickly, rushing over to sleep beside Safia.

"Well, now what?" I ask myself, which makes Chell and Nesia open their eyes and give me longing stares that just beg me to resume my cuddling session with them. "Okay, cuddling with you two it is." I decide, Chell and Nesia smiling happily as I use my hands to rub their fur and scales respectively.

"I'm so happy with you, Mister Jay." Chell tells me as she returns the petting with her paws hugging my lower torso, her bashful smile and light blush making her look so adorable and cuddly. "So am I, my husband. I would not mind more of this every morning." Nesia adds, the Grass Type having taken to placing her hand on my chest.

"And I'm happy with the both of you around, too." I chuckle, before a familiar tail enters my vision and caresses my cheek. "Good morning, Kat." I greet my lovely and sexy Liepard, who gives me a smile with those half lidded eyes of hers in response.

"And a good morning to you, Jay. I suppose you would not mind if your third wife cuddled with you as well?" She asks me, having already noticed Chell and Nesia having their own time with me. In response to her question, I look to the two starter Pokemon for confirmation.

"I don't mind, Mister Jay! Kat can cuddle with us!" Chell openly goes with the desires of her fellow harem member, while Nesia simply seems a little upset about the notion. "I do not mind if Husband does not." The Servine says plain and simply, although her true feelings are apparent for me to see.

"Ness, it's alright. Just because Kat is here too, doesn't mean I'm gonna love ya less. I'll still be here to look after my cute Servine, so don't fret." I assure her, to which she blushes as she nods. "I shall place my trust in Husband, then." Nesia tells me, smiling warmly as she gets more proof of my devotion.

"And I shall enjoy all of my time with you to the fullest." Katrina adds, slinking into the sleeping bag that I unzipped, before laying on top of me and placing her head upon my chest. "Kat, you are so adorable like this." I chuckle, lovingly caressing her furry head.

"Jay, you are quite the gentleman. Flattering a lady in such a manner..." Katrina giggles at my compliment, while I decide to stroke along her back with my hands. "That does feel quite good though, Jay. Please continue..." Katrina asks me, to which I comply.

I make sure to pay attention to Chell and Nesia as well, stroking along their bodies and patting their heads while I alternate my hands. "Mister Jay, your hands feel so nice..." Chell sighs, content with the petting session along with her cuddle.

"Master, your hands feel so warm..." Nesia adds, happily nuzzling my side with her head as I caress each and every one of her smooth, yet cold scales. Meanwhile, I decide to mess with a part of Katrina I haven't touched before, rubbing her ears gently.

"Ooh! Jay, p-please be a little more c-careful with my ears. They're q-quite sensitive..." Katrina gasps and shudders once she feels my fingers rub her ear, making me quickly pull my hand away once she says so. I had no idea she'd react in such a way to getting her ears touched.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry about that, Kat. Let me try that again." I apologize to the Liepard, who shakes her head as her tail gently rubs against my arm. "There is no need to apologize, Jay. You could not have known." She replies, before I smile and simply opt to gently trace a finger along the outside of her ear.

"Mmm, now this just feel absolutely delightful..." Katrina purrs, her soft rumbling now extending to me as her throat sends small vibrations along my chest and causing me to laugh. "Kat, that feels weird!" I chuckle, before I resume petting the feline despite her continued purring.

"Kat's making that sound again, Mister Jay! It sounds so funny!" Chell giggles, while Nesia nods in response to her friend's comment. "It sounds like a motor." She says, getting me, as well as Chell and Katrina to look at her with quizzical expressions.

"Wait, how do you know what a motor even is?" I ask the Servine, who eyes me with her calm expression while she addresses me. "Husband, your computer helps me find lots of interesting things. It also helps me answer many questions I had about humans that I had before." She explains, her tone hinting at her slight annoyance.

"What's a motor?" Chell asks immediately after the Servine is done explaining, which gets my attention. "Well, a motor is something that creates power for other creations we humans have made. For example, we have motors in cars that power them. Cars are basically boxes with wheels on them, and we can move around by controlling them." I explain, making Chell and Katrina quite interested.

"So, how fast are they?" Chell further presses her questioning, which gets me to shrug. "Well, I'm not so sure about right now. But the last time I checked, the fastest car around could travel at 242 miles per hour." I tell the Dewott, who looks rather cofused at the measurements that I had listed.

"What's a mile, Mister Jay?" Chell asks, Katrina also just as confused as the Dewott. "I have no idea what a mile means." Katrina adds, which gets me to sweat drop. "Well, crap. I have no idea how to translate that into meters." I admits, before Nesia comes to my rescue.

"242 miles per hour means that the car could travel at 108 meters per second." The Servine enlightens the rest of us present, which makes Chell's jaw promptly hit the floor. "Woah! Cars can go that far in a single second!?" The Dewott gasps, Katrina equally as surprised.

"I must say, that is quite fast." The Liepard remarks, while I eye Nesia with surprise. "You already know how to convert miles into meters?" I ask the Grass Snake, who nods at me with her usual deadpan expression.

"Indeed, husband. Like I said, I have learned much from the computer." She replies simply, getting me to pat the Servine atop her scaly head. "Well, I guess I own you an apology for doubting you, huh? I'm really impressed by how fast your picked that up, Ness." I chuckle, which causes a blush to break out on Nesia's face.

"Thank you, Master." Nesia replies, a small smile on her features as she nods my way. "You're freaking adorable when you smile like that, Ness." I chuckle, petting her head once more and hearing her sigh happily. However, I'm quickly alerted to something important as I catch a whiff of myself.

"Shit. I haven't washed up yet." I comment aloud, Chell looking to me with a look of confusion on her face. "Mister Jay?" She asks me, seeing the look of mild disgust I have. "Damn it, I smell disgusting." I sigh, before I look to the three Pokemon snuggling up next to me.

"Hey, wanna wash up first? I feel dirty now." I chuckle sheepishly, to which Katrina shakes her head. "But your natural scent smells rather nice, Jay. It would be a shame if you were to wash that away..." The Lieaprd pleads with me as she comments on my odor, to which I sigh and scratch her head.

"He doesn't really smell nice right now, Kat..." Chell agrees with me, her nose wrinkling in slight distaste as Nesia shakes her head. "No. Husband's natural scent smells nice to me." The Servine retorts, siding with the feline on this one.

"Not everyone appreciates my smell like you do, Kat. Mostly, everyone that isn't a Pokemon will really be annoyed and disgusted by me." I point out, Katrina giving me a cute pout as she stretches a little and gets out of the sleeping bag.

"If you insist, then. I shall join you for your bath." Katrina replies, sitting down as the rest of us exit the sleeping bag. "Yay! A bath with Mister Jay!" Chell cheers, smiling happily as Nesia nods in agreement with the eager Dewott.

"As much as I like your scent, I like taking a bath with you more." The Servine adds, to which I smirk and raise an eyebrow her way. "Are you sure you're here for a bath, and not to see my dick? Taking a bath is a really convenient excuse, I'll give ya that much." I chuckle teasingly, which gets the two starters to blush a bright red.

"Mister Jay, it isn't like that at all! It's not because I wanna see it!" Chell quickly blurts out, her embarrassment plain as day while she tries to hide her flustered gaze. "I wouldn't mind seeing husband's penis. We're betrothed after all, so that is not an issue..." Nesia replies, although she seems to be quite flustered at the thought of seeing my dick as well.

"Jay, you are such a perverted Trainer. Suggesting your own Pokemon to perform such a scandalous act!" Katrina giggles as she takes in the sight of both starter Pokemon blushing, before her gaze becomes more suggestive as she nears my crotch.

"Although, I would not be opposed to being able to do more than just look." She purrs seductively as she rubs against my pants, which makes me suck in a deep breath and try to force down my growing erection. Think about the Titanic! Memorization of school syllabus! Math lessons, brain! Remember how boring those were!? Huh!?

"Kat! Why would you say something like that!?" Chell yelps, blushing even deeper as she waves her hands about frantically. "Well, if husband doesn't mind…" Nesia trails off, as she looks into my eyes nervously, most likely envisioning me taking her first time as her fellow harem members watch.

"Hey, calm down now. That was a joke, you two. No need to take Katrina's teasing so seriously, alright?" I assure the Dewott and Servine, who let off sighs of relief once they hear my explanation to the Liepard's sudden want to get it on.

"Oh! I guess I was overreacting, huh?" Chell giggles, smiling sheepishly as she rubs the back of her head. "I'll go get the soap then, husband." Nesia speaks up, getting me to nod as I address her. "Then I shall awaken the others, Jay. They should not be left out of a necessary cleaning session." Katrina adds, before slinking over to the others to awaken them from their slumber.

"I'll help too, Mister Jay! I'll wake Jack and his team up!" Chell calls out to me, getting a nod from me as well. "Come on, sleepy heads! Rise and shine!" Chell shouts at the downed teenager and his group of Pokemon, which gets Ty to begin to stir. However, this is short lived as he rolls over and tries to ignore the Dewott. Jack is still sound asleep, unfazed by her yelling whatsoever.

"Ness, my soap's in the second smallest space of my bag." I inform the Servine, who nods as she goes to get the soap. As she does so, I decide to wake the ones closest to me. Namely, a pair of small adorable Grass Types and a large, flame scale spreading moth.

"Wake up, guys. Wake up." I speak gently to them, shaking their bodies a little to get the awakening process going. "Nmm… Hmm? Is it morning already, Sir…?" Lily mumbles, her eyes squinting due to the light of the sun shining in her face as of right now. Regardless, she gets up.

"Good… *yawn* good morning, Jay." Nova gets up rather quickly, once she sees me trying to get her to stop napping. "Ugh, come on. Five more… minutes..." However, Dani isn't as understanding as her fellow team members as she rolls over and tries to go back to sleep.

"Dani, get up. You need a bath." I sigh, shaking her again to try and wake her lazy butt up. "No, it's too early..." The Cottonee groans, which gets Lily to huff as she rolls her friend over onto her back so she gets a good facial dosage of sunlight.

"Argh, my eyes! Lily, are you crazy!?" Dani yelps, her eyes now squeezed shut as the Petili shakes her fluffy body non stop. "Dani, you're so lazy! Get up, right now!" She tells her friend, who groans as she finally decides to float on upwards and face the day ahead of her.

"Fiiine, I'll get up if it'll stop your harassment." Dani sighs in resignation, as Lily smiles at her friend. In response to the help from the Petilil, I pet her on the head. "Nice job, Lily. Thanks for the assist." I thank the little Grass Type, who blushes a bit as she averts her gaze.

"I-it's no problem, Sir." She replies, her blush and her size making her look so damn cute. "Now, come on Lily. You, Nova and Dani need a bath." I beckon the three over to my side, Dani sighing as she follows Lily over to join up with the others. Nova however, isn't looking too willing to do so.

"Do I have to, Jay?" Nova asks me, to which I nod in response to her question. "Yes, Nova. You're not exactly the cleanest Volcarona around, so a washing up is needed right now." I tell her, which gets her to back away from me when she hears that.

"Could I not take a bath, please?" The Volcarona begs me, making me shake my head as I hold her gently by the abdomen to grab her attention. I quickly see the problem here, as she being a Fire Type and water don't really seem to mix all that well.

"It's okay, Nova. I'll be around to help you deal with the water, so don't worry." I assure the scared Bug Type, who shakes her head frantically. "No! The water… brings back bad memories, Jay. I don't want to go in it." Nova replies, looking at me with an expression of fear.

Seeing her like this makes me confused initially, as she didn't flinch too much when Chell sprayed her down back in the Club. However, I get it the longer I ponder the subject. She was most likely raised in that Battle Club, so bath time must not have been the best for her. People there didn't exactly treat Pokemon as equals there, after all.

"There's no need to be scared, Nova. I promise you, I'll chase all the bad memories away. Trust me on this one, will ya?" I tell her with a warm smile, trying to soothe her panicky mind by placing a hand to her head and gently caressing her lower facial area. In response to my promise, she sighs before nodding reluctantly.

"...Okay, then. I shall join you in taking a bath, Jay." She speaks up, which causes me to smile wider as I lead her by holding one of her small legs. "Come on, then. Everyone's already up and about, and I don't wanna get left behind." I tell her, gesturing to Katrina who is already leading everyone else towards the nearest stream.

Soon after I convince the large Fire Moth to take a bath, I find myself behind a rather sizable group of Pokemon, which includes the rest of my team. "I'm sorry, Mister Jay. I tried to, but..." Chell starts again, before I shake my head.

"Nah, it isn't your fault. Just leave 'em to sleep, and we can wake 'em up later." I reassure the Dewott for the third time, as Cleo sighs as she shakes her head. "Ah still don't get how Jack and his team could sleep through all that noise." The Flaafy comments, getting me to chuckle as I sweat drop.

"Well, one more mystery that we'll never be able to solve eh?" I sigh, thinking back to a few minutes ago to when Chell had tried and failed to wake Jack and his team up. Hell, even his Mimikyu was fast asleep. Chell had tried everything, from cold blasts of water to jumping on the chests of everyone save for Mimi.

"Seriously, how the hell are they fast asleep!?" Alita gawks, still rather unbelieving of what she had witnessed earlier. "I'll say! Yeesh, those guys are impossible to wake up!" Belladonna comments, shaking her head as Taylor crawls alongside her.

"Eh, not our problem. They'll wake up when they feel like it." Taylor throws in her two cents about the matter, and despite her lack of shoulders to use, manages to convey a shrug. "But I'm surprised that they aren't used to waking up early. Early bird catches the worm, after all." I grin, Alita quickly understanding the meaning of my quip.

"Was that a pun, you idiot!?" The Unfezant groans as she shoots me an annoyed look, making me chuckle as I nod in response to her question. "Yes." I reply simply, Belladonna giggling as she hears the poor taste in humor. "You're such a dumbass, Jay." She sighs, a wry smile on her face as Cleo and Chell laugh.

"God, you're such an ass! Quit it with those stupid jokes already!" Taylor is quick to glare my way, shooting a line of string at me that I easily evade due to already knowing she was gonna do that from where she was. In response to her attack, I grin.

"Sorry, am I bugging you? You shouldn't seam so surprised though. I'm always pulling your strings when it comes to jokes. These puns of mine are silky smooth." I laugh, furthering my own joking as Taylor and Alita sigh in exasperation simultaneously.

"Hah, nice." Dani snickers, while Safia is caught up laughing at the annoyance of her fellow Pokemon. Meanwhile, Chell and Cleo simply laugh harder in light of my bad taste in humor. "Husband is unbelievable." Nesia sighs, rolling her eyes as she says that.

"Come, now. You and I both know Jay is doing this all in good fun." Katrina giggles, smiling as she observes the scene. Meanwhile, Leah and Lily both share wry smiles at the sound of my puns. "Jay sure is carefree, is he not?" Nova comments, Nesia nodding as she eyes me with some slight concern.

"Husband is so carefree it's scary." The Servine agrees with the Volcarona, while Alita smacks me over the head with a wing. "Can't you go five seconds without making a pun, you idiot!?" The Unfezant sighs in exasperation, which gets me to chuckle as I reply with a shake of my head.

"Nah. Teasing you is too much fun to pass up, with that cute pout you make and all." I grin cheekily, to which Alita blushes and looks away as she receives the compliment. "That's still not gonna make me hate you less. Idiot." The Unfezant mumbles, huffing as she tries to hide her flushed face.

"Jay, I believe we have found what we have come here for." Katrina speaks up, gesturing to a stream with her tail. "Nice find, Kat. This'll work nicely." I thank the Liepard, scratching her behind the ears to show my gratitude, as well as some of my affection. I get a soft purr of happiness in response, making me chuckle.

"Not a problem. Now, I suppose we should all begin washing up." Katrina reminds me of why we're here, getting a nod from me. "I hear ya. Now come on, everyone. I dunno about you, but I could use a bath. God, I smell like shit." I speak up, taking off my hoodie to reveal my Ragey Birdies: Deep Space Edition shirt underneath.

"Sir, what are those?" The Petilil asks me, gesturing to the pissed off birds on the front of my shirt. "Well, this is a Ragey Birdies T-shirt. It used to be a really popular video game series a couple of years ago. I got it a while back, but I didn't really find the time to wear it until now." I explain the significance of the characters lining the shirt to Lily, who doesn't seem any less confused at my response.

"A video game series?" Leah shoots me a question this time, which makes me realize that she, as well as the rest of the team, most likely don't have the foggiest idea of what a game actually is. "A video game is something played on a device like Husband's computer." Nesia explains for me, making me grin as I nod in agreement to what she had said.

"Basically what Ness said. They're really fun to play, mind you." I add, Chell's expression lighting up at the sound of a fun game to play. "Ooh, ooh, ooh! I wanna try, Mister Jay!" The Dewott is quick to ask me for the chance to mess around, to which I smirk.

"Eh, sure. Just tell me when we're done with lunch later." I tell the excited starter Pokemon, who smiles widely in return. "Yay! Ness, you wanna play too?" Chell asks the Servine, who nods in reply. I'm actually pretty interested to see how they're gonna fare in a game for humans to play with.

"Uh, Jay?" Safia questions me as she gestures to my cartoon styled shirt, barely able to hold back her giggles as she tries her best to stifle them. "What." Taylor and Alita simply deadpan, while Belladonna has an amused smirk on her face. Lily and Leah both seem quite surprised to see me wearing it, as they give me confused looks.

"Really, Jay?" Dani giggles, also finding my choice of clothing to be quite hilarious. "Well, Ah can't say Ah've ever seen that kinda shirt before." Cleo snorts in amusement, while Nesia simply shakes her head in disbelief once she sees the patterns lining my shirt.

In response to the reactions regarding my attire, I raise an eyebrow. "What? Is it the shirt?" I ask, confused as to why they would react in such a way. It's just a childish piece of clothing, which doesn't make it that big of a deal to me.

"You dumbass." Belladonna giggles, while Taylor simply shoots me a look of disbelief. "Why. Just… why." Alita deadpans, making me tug idly at the material of the clothing. "Well, I liked it as a kid and it fits me now. So, why not?" I shrug, Katrina giggling as she hears my explanation.

"That sounds very much like you, Jay." The feline comments, getting me to chuckle at her remark. "I suppose so." I admit, seeing her head into the water for a wash up. "Hey, wait for me!" Chell calls out to her fellow harem member, diving headfirst into the water and making quite a sizable splash.

"Hey! Not cool, damn it!" Taylor, now soaking wet, yells obscenities at the Dewott. Chell obviously can't hear her, due to her whole body being submerged in the stream. "Eh, sure. I could use one, anyway." Safia shrugs, quickly sprinting into the body of water to clean herself.

"Sister, wait for me!" Leah calls out to the Zoroark, the jackal following her into the water as well. However, both Pokemon quickly shiver once their torsos reach the surface of the water. "Ack! That's cold!" Safia yelps, Leah letting off a squeak once she realizes just how low the water temperature is.

"In hindsight, I should have warned you about that..." Katrina giggles as she settles into the water, having gotten used to the rather sudden drop in temperature. "Oh, yeah! Well, take this!" Safia smirks maliciously, using her paw to thrust a wave of water towards the feline.

"Why, the nerve of you…!" Katrina yelps, having been hit with the splash of fluids full force as Safia snickers. "Hah, gotcha!" She crows, just in time for a wave of water to hit her in the face. "And consider that retribution." Katrina retorts, having used her tail to splash some water at the lupine.

"Oh, it is on." Safia grins, before quickly launching more water at Katrina, as the feline returns fire in kind. Some of the water ends up getting Leah wet, the Lucario yelping due to not having had her upper body soaked yet. Meanwhile, the rest of the team enter the stream as well.

"I wanna play!" Chell cheers gleefully, having just surfaced from her short dive and squirts a weak blast of water at Safia. It misses however, and hits Alita in the face. "Hey! Watch it, furball!" Alita growls in irritation at the Dewott, who proceeds to giggle at the Unfezant.

"Come on, Ali! Join us!" Chell eggs the Flying Type on, which gets Alita to smirk as she uses her wing to splash water at Chell. "Woah!" Chell yelps, quickly diving under the surface to dodge the attack, but she is soon met with another wave as she comes up for air.

"Hah! Gotcha, Chell!" Alita crows triumphantly, before she sees Chell grin widely. For some reason, that grin doesn't seem friendly to me. It's almost devilish in nature. "Ali, you should know by now that you're at a disadvantage!" Chell informs the Unfezant, before letting all hell break loose with rapid shots of weak Water Gun.

Needles to say, the barrage of shots quickly force Alita back. "Gah! Hey, not fair!" Alita yelps, laughing as she tries to keep herself from becoming overwhelmed by Chell's attack. Chell also remembers to spit some water at Safia as well, the Zoroark using her paws to defend herself from the onslaught of shots.

"Many thanks for the assistance, Chell." Katrina purrs, her fellow harem member having diverted fire from herself for now. "No prob, Kat!" Chell grins at the feline, before both Pokemon see Alita and Safia get back up with smirks on their faces.

"Truce?" Safia asks the Unfezant, who nods as she grins maliciously. "Truce." She replies, before both Pokemon work on peppering the opposition with shots of water. "Oh, you're on! Let's get 'em, Kat!" Chell giggles, the Dewott having been hit by the first barrage of waves made by Alita.

"It's a freaking war zone out there..." Belladonna grins wryly at the sight of the water fight, as Taylor nods with a sigh. "Eh, kids'll be kids." The Sewaddle remarks on the admittedly childish scene, as Dani and Cleo laugh at the full on warfare of water between the two parties.

"It looks like a lot of fun!" Lily smiles, as Leah chuckles at the Petilil's commentary. "Yeah, but I'd rather not get caught up in that." The Lucario replies, before sitting down in the stream and cupping some water in her paws to wash herself off.

"Chell is so excitable." Nesia sighs in exasperation, although her smile indicates that she's enjoying this happier mood among the team as well. With my shirt still on, I look to Nova, who is eyeing the water with some level of hesitation still.

"You sure you still don't wanna go in, Nova? Everyone else is having a great time in there." I ask the Volcarona, who looks to me uncomfortably. "Everyone does seem to be very happy..." She trails off, sighing as she looks to the water anew. Seems that she's still not too sure about this, huh?

"Don't worry about it. I promised I would chase all the bad memories away, didn't I?" I assure the large Fire Moth, putting my arms around her midsection and holding her gently in my embrace. "Jay, what are you doing?" Nova gasps, a slight blush gracing her cheeks as she feels the closer contact we're having at the moment.

"Well, there's no better way than to make some new memories involving water together, I'd say. If we make enough good memories, I'm sure you'll leave all the bad ones behind. What do ya say?" I suggest, bringing Nova closer to my own face as I try to coax her into trying out the water.

She thinks about this for a little while, before finally shaking her head. "Jay, I appreciate all that you've done for me so far. But, I don't think I'm ready to face my own fears just yet. I'm sorry." Nova admits, looking down in dejection as she rejects my suggestion.

"Hey, now. Why are you looking so down, huh?" I chuckle, petting the large Fire Moth on the horns and getting her to look up at me. "There's no need to feel bad about it. If you wanna face your fears another time, then it's okay. Just know that I'll be with you every step of the way." I assure Nova, who smiles warmly at me in response.

"Thank you, Jay. You must be the kindest human I've ever met..." Nova sniffs in response, tears building in her eyes as she smiles happily at me. "I'm not being nice, though. I'm just doing what any good friend would do." I tell her, wiping her tears away with my thumb.

"Now, come on. I'll get some water over so I can clean you up." I suggest, holding up my empty cooking pot as I say so. "That would be very kind of you, Jay. Thank you very much." Nova nods my way, smiling all the while as I put my pot down and gently pat her head.

"As long as I'm around, I'll always be kind to you, Nova. I care about you, just like I do everyone else here." I assure the Volcarona, who giggles as she hears my promise to her. "I shall hold you to that, then." Nova replies, making me chuckle as I walk over to the stream and get some water for the large and deadly, yet cute Fire Moth.

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	76. Chapter 75

Chapter 75

[Jay]

"Now hold still, Nova. I need to reach behind your head now." I sigh, gently edging my hand, equipped with a wet and soapy towel closer to the Volcarona's head. However, the large Fire Moth Pokemon pulls away as soon as I suggest that.

"Jay, no! I won't let you!" Now, it would seem that she's simply acting on her fear of water itself, but the reason she's shying away isn't because of fear. "Come on, now. Stop moving so I can clean ya, Nova. You did so well the last time." I chuckle, once again edging the towel closer to the back of her head.

"But it tickled so much when you cleaned my other horn! Please don't do this, Jay!" Nova giggles, trying to resort to using her head to push my hand away. Yup, this walking fiery insect of doom is actually quite ticklish. I don't mind that, though. It just makes her all the more adorable.

However, what she doesn't realize about her plan is that her head isn't as mobile as my hand is. Therefore, she leaves a wide opening for me to place the towel against the back of her other horn and begin scrubbing away.

"Gotcha this time." I chuckle, cleaning the dirt away from her lower horn as her face flushes and she giggles uncontrollably. "Jay please, not there!" Nova squeals, begging me to stop the assault on her horn as I try my best to clean her amid her constant writhing and jerky head movements.

It does take a little bit of time, but I finally manage to get her horns cleaned. "There we go. All clean now." I smile as I admire the now shiny carapace and horns of the Volcarona, the plates of chitin shimmering slightly as they reflect the sunlight off them.

"Thank you, Jay. I'm very sorry if my sensitivity was a bother to you." Nova sighs, her breathing still a little heavy as she tries to apologize with her flushed face. However, I simply rub her horns gently in response to her apology.

"There's no need for that, silly. I don't mind something this trivial. To me, that's just part of what makes you cute." I chuckle, which makes her smile shyly as she accepts my ministrations. She sighs softly as she savors my touch, and I take delight in her warmth when I pet her.

"Thank you again for the wash up, Jay. I have to say, you did a great job." The Volcarona thanks me once more, her head making a little dip as she smiles happily while admiring her cleaned exoskeleton. "Heh, glad ya like my handiwork." I smile in kind, her happiness already spreading over to me.

"Husband..." I hear someone speak up behind me, which surprises me for a second. "Geez, Ness. Don't scare me like that..." I sigh, before turning around to see a frowning Servine before me. She seems to be quite upset, if her look of sadness and disappointment is any indication.

"Uh, Ness? Something up?" I ask her, to which Nesia walks over with a heated glare. "Husband, you already have the three of us to love. Why are you still trying to seduce more Pokemon?" Nesia accuses, as Nova's face flushes a deep red in response.

"S-seduce me!?" Nova squeaks, using her wings to hide her embarrassed face as Nesia continues to lay into me. "Husband, I have come here to file a complaint. You have been spending too much time with Nova that you won't even bathe me." Nesia huffs, pouting in that cute manner of hers as she speaks her mind.

"Hey now, Ness. I am going to bathe you, but Nova isn't exactly that fond of water. She wanted me to help, so I did. I am not trying to seduce her." I try to reason with the angry starter Pokemon, who turns her snout away from me and lets off a 'hmph' as she hears my retort.

"Pervert!" Alita and Taylor shout at me from where they are, both Pokemon already sporting a blush as they send heated glares my way. "Uh, no I'm not. I was just helping her out over here." I try to get them to listen to my side of the story, but they simply turn their heads away and huff.

"Husband is still trying to plead innocent, even though he is guilty of his crime. Chell, Katrina, what do you think?" Nesia asks the two other Pokemon that are romantically involved with me, to which Chell nods her head in agreement to her friend's accusations.

"Yeah, Mister Jay! You're so busy looking after Nova that you won't even help wash us!" Chell pouts as she says so, her cheeks puffed out in irritation and annoyance as she voices her complaints as well. "Well, I for one think that Jay is treating us with a sufficient amount of love, although I would not mind if he gave us more attention." The Liepard speaks up, to which I sigh.

"Well, yer in hot water now Jay." Cleo laughs, while Leah and Lily simply observe the scene with expressions of pity. "Come on, guys! Help me out over here!" I yelp, already withering under Nesia's hardened stare and Chell's pouting face.

"Sorry, I don't know how to help you." Leah replies, Lily giving me an apologetic glance. "Sorry, Sir..." The Petilil trails off, a little troubled about not being able to help out. "Don't worry about him, Lily. I'm sure he'll figure it out." Dani giggles as she tells her friend, making me frown. Damn it, I'm on my own.

"Hey now, let's not jump to conclusions here. I haven't exactly been giving her more time than I give the three of you." I try to reason with the two of them, Nesia frowning once she hears my excuse. "Chell, did you hear that? That's what a cheating playboy would say." The Servine shakes her head sadly, while Chell nods in light of her friend's observation.

"Mister Jay, are we really not enough for you? You're being so mean!" Chell sniffs, tears brimming in her eyes as she accuses me of cheating. "H-hey, come on! I'm not cheating on you at all, kiddo! I love ya, really…!" I stutter, not too sure what to do once I catch sight of the Dewott's tears.

"It's no use. By the vote of the majority, Husband has been deemed guilty. Case closed." Nesia announces, getting Safia and Dani to giggle as I raise an eyebrow. "Case closed?" I repeat, before I eye the two pouting Pokemon once again. Even they can get jealous from time to time, eh? "Extreme pervert. Super lecher. Poke-womanizer." Nesia huffs, making me sigh in light of those names.

"Ha! You got busted, Jay!" Safia snickers, enjoying how my lovers are now deciding to guilt trip me. "Heh, they kinda do have a point there." Dani adds, her amusement also rather apparent as she gets a laugh out of this little scene as well. Katrina says nothing, simply opting to giggle from where she is.

"I did not get busted, Safia. Like I said, I haven't been giving them any less time that I do the rest of you." I frown as I cross my arms, which gets Belladonna to roll her eyes in kind. "That's kinda the point, you dumbass." The Venipede replies, sighing in exasperation.

Well, I guess I have been treating them with less attention since before I caught so many new team members. I do care for them very much, but I also need to look after the others as well. This side of them is a little annoying, but it's also part of what makes them cute.

"Alright, alright. I guess I have been neglecting you two, haven't I?" I sigh in resignation, before I walk over to the shore of the stream, a bottle of fur and scale shampoo respectively in my hands. "Mister Jay?" Chell looks to me, confused as to what I'm trying to do. Nesia looks just as lost as Chell does, not really getting what I'm planning.

"You want me to treat you nice, right? Then come over here. You too, Ness." I beckon the two over to me, to which the two Pokemon quickly oblige without complaint. "Husband, what are you planning?" Nesia asks me, her expression now having returned to its usual bland state.

"Well, I suppose I could start by washing you two. Since you said that you wanted me to bathe you, I might as well get working on it." I suggest, Chell beaming at me in response. "Yay! Mister Jay's giving us a bath!" The Dewott cheers, while Nesia smiles a little when she hears what I have planned.

"Wait up a sec, before I forget." I speak up all of a sudden, tossing a bottle of soap in Leah's direction. The Lucario catches it with her hands, before observing it herself. "Jay, what is this?" She asks me, to which I gesture to the bottle I have in my own hand.

"That stuff's all purpose soap, like the stuff I have to clean myself. Just rub it all over yourself, and let the water wash it off you. You girls can use it, if ya want to." I tell the jackal, who nods as she eyes the soap with a smile. "Thank you very much, Jay. I'll be sure to use it." She replies, taking some of the slippery stuff and rubbing it all over herself.

"Now hold still and close your eyes, kiddo. I'm gonna start with your head, first." I tell the excited Dewott, as I squirt a sizable dollop of the fur conditioner into my hand. Rubbing it in between my hands for a little bit, I then proceed to rub the stuff into Chell's fur starting with her head.

"Mister Jay, that feels nice..." Chell sighs happily as she faces me, giggling as I work my way down her neck and to her back. "Kiddo, you want me to wash your front?" I ask the Dewott while I work, getting Chell to to frown in confusion. "Sure! Why'd you ask?" Chell questions me, to which I cough.

"Your teats, remember?" I remind Chell of what happened the last time I touched her nipple, a blush forming on both our faces as I say that. "Well, I wouldn't mind if it was you touching me there Mister Jay..." Chell trails off, her blush deepening as she suggests the idea.

"Well, if you're sure you don't mind." I reply, moving my hands to her front side and working the soap into her fur there. She gasps every time I manage to touch her nipples, and so I have to try and hold back the growing urge in me, both in my mind and the one in my pants.

"Husband is getting hard already. He's such a pervert." Nesia speaks up when I'm halfway through the process, making me jump as I hear her voice out of nowhere. "You are?" Chell asks me, blushing a shade darker as she guesses the most likely reason behind my erection.

"No, Ness. I am not a pervert. Now don't go spreading the wrong ideas to Chell." I sigh, which gets Katrina to giggle as she observes the tent pitching in my pants. "Well, Nesia isn't wrong about that." The Liepard comments, making me frown as I eye the cheeky feline.

"Kat, you're not helping matters." I inform her, getting her to giggle as she hears that. "I realize that, Jay." She replies, her attitude nonchalant as she lies in the water. She just doesn't seem to care much about that, does she? It's a grueling mental battle, but I finally get Chell's body all soaped up.

"Alright, that's all of you. Now, hold still for a sec, kid. I wanna help Ness out, too." I tell her, taking some of the scale shampoo and lathering that up in between my hands as well. Once the stuff is nice and warmed by my body heat, I begin gently caressing Nesia's scaly form with my soapy hands.

"Husband, I really like it when you do this..." Nesia sighs contentedly, happy to just sit there and let me work my magic. I slowly and gently rub her all over with my slippery hands, making sure the soap cleans out every scale on her smooth and cool form.

"And your smile makes doing this all worth it, Ness." I reply, Nesia blushing happily as she relaxes further into my ministrations. "I love you, Husband. Please, touch me more..." Nesia sighs happily, making me blush as I take her words the wrong way. God damn, she's surprisingly cute like this...

"Ness, look! Mister Jay's thing is poking up again!" Chell giggles as I trace my hands along her smooth curves again, just to make sure I didn't miss any spots along her body. "Husband, are you aroused by my body? I don't mind." Nesia says matter-of-factly, although the blush on her face says she's a little nervous.

"Well, I guess it's natural right? You are my cute wife, after all." I chuckle a little bashfully, Nesia blushing even deeper as she hears me say that. "...Husband, that makes me very happy." The Servine replies, smiling as she tells me that. Since the Servine isn't nearly as furry as Chell is, it doesn't take me long to completely cover her in suds.

"Okay, you're all soaped up, you two. Now hold still, and let me water you down." I tell the two starter Pokemon, cupping water into my hands and dumping it over her head. Chell uses her paws to wipe her shut eyes of any soap, while Nesia takes to shaking her head at random intervals.

"Pwah! Thanks a lot, Mister Jay!" Chell giggles once she's devoid of any bubbles lining her coat, nuzzling me with her cheek as she hugs me. "So, is that enough proof that I love the both of ya?" I ask them, which gets both the Dewott and the Servine to smile and nod as they look up at me.

"Yup! There's no doubt about it!" Chell replies, making me pat her on the head in response while I give her a kiss atop her still wet head. "I agree with Chell. I felt a lot of love from you, Husband. I have no objections." Nesia adds, making me chuckle as I pet her scaly head gently.

"Heh, did I mention you're so lovably adorable, Chell?" I chuckle, said starter Pokemon blushing as her expression becomes bashful. "Aw, Mister Jay! That's really sweet of you to say." Chell giggles shyly, making me plant a kiss on her head in return.

"See? You're being cute again, ya goof. I meant that, though." I tell the Dewott, Nesia nuzzling up to me as she looks at me with a slight hint of jealousy. "Husband, am I lovable too?" The Servine asks me, her monotone voice betraying her need for me to tell her.

"Of course, Ness. Your smile, especially. Haven't I told you that before?" I ask her rhetorically, to which she blushes as she smiles a little. "Yes, Husband. Yes you have." She replies, smiling wider as she nuzzles up to me as well. In response to this, I finally feel something that I had completely forgotten.

"Uh, could you two not do that just yet? You're still wet, and my clothes are getting wet too." I remind them, to which Nesia pouts as she stops hugging me. "Husband, it does not matter that much." The Servine interjects, her retort further supported by Chell.

"Yeah, Mister Jay! Aren't you gonna take a bath with us too?" The Dewott asks me as well, making me frown as I get a little uncomfortable. "Well sure, if you don't mind the scars." I remind them of the ugly scene littering my chest and back, to which the two starter Pokemon both visibly droop a bit.

"Oh. I didn't think about that..." Chell admits, both her and Nesia looking quite guilty once reminded of my misfortunes. "Wait, what scars?" Belladonna asks me, shooting me a confused look as she eyes my clothes. Or rather, she seems to want to know what's underneath them.

"Jay, I am also curious. What scars are you referring to?" Leah is next to question me, to which the team members that have heard my tale before shoot me worried looks. "Well, Jay might not exactly be thrilled ta tell y'all that." Cleo tries to help me out, to which Safia snorts.

"Nah, they can't be all that bad right?" She voices her own opinions, clearly disbelieving of how bad the situation really is. "I dunno, Safia. Maybe it isn't considering this dumbass." The Sewaddle adds, a little unbelieving herself. Katrina's expression darkens as soon as she hears that, but Alita's expression changes the most.

"Shut up." Alita growls at them in reply, causing them to raise an eyebrow in the Unfezant's direction. "Huh? What'd you say?" Safia asks Alita, to which Alita shoots a venomous glare at the Zoroark in kind. "I said shut up, both of you! You have no idea how bad it is at all!" Alita yells angrily at them, causing both Bug Types to flinch.

"Woah, no need to get so mad about it! Geez..." Safia huffs, while Nova looks to me with a worried expression. "Jay, if your scars are truly serious, then you do not have to show them to us." Nova tries to comfort me, which gets Lily to nod as she eyes me with a similar look of worry.

"Sir, you don't have to show us those scars again if you don't want to." Lily assures me, while Dani nods in agreement with her friend's words. "Yeah, Jay. I wouldn't want to show those nasty things off either." The Cottonee adds, her wry smile accompanied by some slight amount of unease.

"I appreciate the consideration, everyone. But, I think that if the rest of us should know more about me to trust me. Besides, I need a bath anyways." I reply, before taking off my shirt. As soon as I remove the article of clothing and look around, I see the five new members of the team sporting looks of horror on their faces.

"What? Is it really that bad?" I chuckle with a wry grin, getting Belladonna and Leah to tear up as they hear me say that. "Of course it's fucking serious, you ass!" Taylor yells as she tears up, looking quite guilty of what she had said earlier as she looks me over.

"Holy shit, Jay. That looks fucked up." Safia comments, her pity for me cracking through her voice as she looks at the multitude of wounds that I had suffered. "I know it does, Safia. Thanks for the reminder." I chuckle dryly, as I sit down and turn my gaze to Nova.

"Jay, those look horrible..." Nova sniffs, crying as she looks me over. "Hey, it's alright. They don't hurt right now, so I'll be fine. Don't cry." I soothe the sobbing Volcarona, as Leah and Belladonna also begin to let loose their own waterworks.

"Jay, I'm so… I'm so sorry for what I said earlier..." Taylor chokes as she cries openly, her head hung low in shame for what she had accused me of earlier. Leah can't bring herself to look at me scars for much longer, tearing her eyes away with a face full of sorrow and anguish.

"Hey, come on everyone. It's fine now, I swear." I try and comfort them again, before Taylor decides to glare at me. However, it isn't me that she's angry at. "How could it be fine, you ass!? After all I said..." The Sewaddle trails off, unable to say much more as she lets tears fall from her cheeks.

"Damn it, Jay! You really think that how I doubted you was fine!?" Safia shouts at me, while Leah lets her own tears fall freely down her cheeks as she looks me over. She and Nova are equally speechless, both Pokemon not really knowing what to do or say to remedy the situation.

"Hey now, you couldn't have known." I tell the Bug Type, scooping the Grass and Bug Type into a hug as she sniffles and sobs. "But Jay, I… I..." Taylor tries to find some reason that I wouldn't forgive her for what she did, to which I shake my head and pat hers with my free hand. Looking over to Safia, I decide to reach an arm out to pat her head.

"Jay? What are you doing?" Safia asks me, the Zoroark looking quite guilty that she had made such insensitive comments about my injuries. In response, I smile at her. "Cheering you up, duh. What else would I be trying to do?" I ask her, to which she shakes her head as I do so.

"I don't deserve your sympathy, Jay. Not after how I laughed off your scars like that." She replies, turning away from me with a bitter smile as she says so. However, I don't let up on my effort to comfort her. "What are you still doing, Jay? I told you, I don't deserve this." Safia tells me, her voice wavering a bit as she says so.

There's no need for self blame this time, Safia. Like I said, you couldn't have known anything about this. I kinda brought that onto myself, with how I never took my clothes off and all." I reply, chuckling as I think about it. That was kinds stupid of me to not tell them about it sooner, huh?

"Now come on, you two. I've already moved past this little thing, so don't feel bad." I gently continue to stroke their heads again and again, making sure that they get all the comfort I can give them in order to make them feel better about the whole thing.

Taylor's the one to finish crying first, her teary eyes gazing into mine as she finally decides to look up at me. "Jay, why do you keep being so nice to me?" She asks, her eyes red and puffy as she asks me that question. In response, I wipe the tears from her eyes and smile warmly at her.

"Because we're a team now. And for me, being a team is like being family. Families forgive each other, and accept each other for who they are." I tell her, getting Safia to raise her head and shake it in disbelief. "You're way too caring, Jay." The Zoroark smirks and wipes her eyes despite herself, making me smile in reply.

"Eh, I guess I am. But, I do care a lot about all of you." I reply, which gets both of them to blush. Taylor buries her head into my chest in addition to her embarrassment, and mutters something that sounds a lot like 'ass'. I can't really hear her though, with my fabric blocking her voice.

"Jay, you dumbass." Belladonna sniffs, her expression now much happier after having heard my forgiveness for her actions earlier. Leah and Nova seem to have calmed down a little as well, which gets me to smile in light of the situation now being a little more positive.

"Eh, but this moron really does care about everyone here. I wouldn't be here now if I wasn't." I reply, seeing everyone else present smile despite having to see the unsightly markings on my body. "Although, I hope the sight isn't too scarring for any of you." I chuckle, making Alita groan in response.

"Ugh, really!?" The Unfezant shoots me an irritated look, to which I return with a now cheeky grin. "I can't really help it, ya know. These things just stream out of my mouth naturally." I add, chuckling as Alita sighs in exasperation. "God, you're such an idiot." She shoots back at me, while Belladonna grins wryly.

"I'm going to have to agree with her on this, you dumbass. You just ruined the mood." The Bug Type sighs and shakes her head, although her smile tells me that my joke wasn't an unwelcome prospect at all. Chell and Cleo both get a good laugh out of that poor joke, and Leah can't help but giggle herself.

"Now wait a sec, alright? I need to take a bath myself, and I could use some company in the meantime." I suggest, taking my pants off quickly and stepping into the water. However, I immediately shiver a little after I place my chest below the surface.

"Yeesh, that's cold. I can't feel my balls..." I hiss, now feeling the cold water flow against my privates. Using the bottle of soap I had bought for myself, I squirt some of it into my hair and rub it into my scalp. As soon as I work on my body, I sigh at the annoyance of not being able to reach my back.

"Damn, I can't reach." I frown, trying my best to get my hands to apply soap to my backside, with no success. "Husband, would you like it if I helped you?" Nesia asks me, the Servine having told Chell that she had noticed my frustration at not being able to clean my back.

"Yeah, Mister Jay! We'll help you out!" The Dewott suggests, which gets me to smile thankfully at the two starter Pokemon. "Thanks, you two. What brought this up, though?" I ask them, to which Nesia gestures to herself.

"I am your wife, so it is my duty to answer to the needs of my husband. It is only natural." She replies, Chell nodding in agreement as Nesia says so. "Well, I just wanted to help out!" She grins, getting me to chuckle and ruffle the Dewott's furry head before handing her the soap bottle.

"Well, thanks again. Just squirt some of that out and put it on my back, please." I instruct the two Pokemon, Chell nodding as she does so while Nesia follows suit. "You got it, Mister Jay!" She smiles, placing the cold substance to my back as soon as it leaves the bottle. In response, I shiver a little.

"Mister Jay, is there something wrong?" Chell asks me, a look of worry on her face once she sees my discomfort. "It's just that the soap is cold, kid. Next time, try and rub it between your paws for a bit to warm it up." I suggest, Chell nodding as she begins to rub her paw pads along my back.

The texture of her pads isn't too rough, but it isn't that smooth either. It makes for a slightly pleasurable feeling, as her appendages rub against my skin and make me sigh. "That feels pretty good, kiddo." I sigh, as Nesia places her small hands on my back as well.

"Husband, does this feel acceptable?" Nesia asks me, her smaller appendages feeling a little underwhelming when compared to Chell's in terms of surface area. Nevertheless, her smoother scales still feel nice along the contours of my back.

"To be honest Ness, your hands do feel a little small. They still feel great, though!" I tell the Servine the truth, while still trying to cheer her up. However, the response from the Grass Snake isn't one of sadness, or anger. Her expression is unreadable from here, and I can't hear any anger in her voice.

"I see. Then, will you allow me to try a different approach?" She asks me, which catches me off guard. "Well, uh… Sure, but what kind of approach do you me..." I start my question, but the rest of it gets stuck in my throat as I feel a much larger mass of Nesia come into contact with me.

"Nesia!? What are you doing!?" Chell yelps, sounding quite flustered at what her fellow harem member is doing. In response, Nesia's reply is quite simple. "I am simply trying out my idea, Chell. You are free to join me, if you like." She simply says, Chell gasping once she hears her friend's notion.

"Uh, well… Can I, Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, getting me to raise an eyebrow. Well, she didn't mull on that for long. "Sure? What is Ness even doing, Chell?" I ask the Dewott, who gets even more nervous as she hears me ask her. She freezes for a bit, like a deer in headlights.

"You'll find out soon..." Chell replies, before I feel another larger mass make contact with my backside. Instead of the feeling of smooth, cold scales on my left side, I feel that this mass is composed of soggy fur. I also feel breathing on my back from both shoulder blades, so this means…

"Are the both of you… using yourselves as back towels?" I ask them, getting both smooth and soggy masses to stop for a moment. "Yes. Is this to your liking, Husband?" Nesia asks me, her voice a little nervous as Chell simply squeaks in embarrassment.

"Well, I can't say that two lovely ladies pressed up to me like this isn't enjoyable." I chuckle nervously myself, blushing as the two begin to once again rub their bodies against mine. For this simple reason, I found it very hard to focus on washing myself as I feel my excitement rising once more.

"Jay seems to be reacting quite well to your decision, Nesia. I must say, I'm quite jealous." Katrina replies, eyeing my boner with sly delight as she seductively winks my way. "H-hey, Kat. Not here!" I yelp, trying to get the horny Liepard under control.

"Husband is aroused? That was expected." Nesia states calmly, however her voice tells me that she's a little happier that her plan had worked. "You are? That's nice to hear, Mister Jay." Chell giggles a little, while I sigh in exasperation in response to their sneaky plan.

"Seriously, you two. You really go far to make me happy, huh?" I chuckle, to which Katrina nuzzles her head against mine. "Jay, we are simply emulating what you do for us all the time." She tells me, making Chell and Nesia stop their ministrations for the time being.

"Yeah, Jay! We're just thanking you for all you've done. Besides..." Chell pauses for a bit, before she speaks up again. "We're your lovers now, right? It's kind of our job." The Dewott adds, getting Nesia to nod in agreement. "Chell is right. As your wives, we are obligated to making you happy, Husband." The Servine replies, making me chuckle in reply.

"I should have know this love of ours was gonna be a two way street, eh?" I sigh, shaking my head at the sheer stupidity that I had set in my head. "Of course! What else would love be? We did tell you, ya know." Chell huffs, looking me in the eye with a pout as Nesia smiles at her friend.

"Husband is unbelievable, but I find that very cute." Nesia speaks her mind, which gets me to blush and chuckle as she says that. "And I find you really cute too, Ness." I sigh happily, before I notice something about my now cleaned back.

"By the way, we should finish up here and get back to work. Training won't happen if we sit around like this." I remind them three Pokemon, Chell and Nesia nodding as they both get off my back. "Okay, Mister Jay!" She replies, before promptly hosing my soapy body down with her Water Gun.

"Thanks, Leah!" I hear Lily speak up, making me turn around to see the Lucario in question helping the Petilil to clean away the last bubbles of soap from her head. "Not a problem, Lily." Leah replies as she gives the Petilil a smile, before dousing the little Grass Type off with one last splash of water.

"Well, I can't say I'm not thankful." Taylor speaks dismissively, while Belladonna and Dani both grin at the helpful jackal. "Thanks for the help, Leah!" The Venipede nods in the direction of the Lucario, getting Taylor to show a wry grin as she looks away.

"Yeah, what she said." The Sewaddle adds, getting Dani to look up at Leah. "Thanks a bunch!" The Cottonee shows her gratitude to the timid Lucario, getting her to smile shyly as she says so. "Well, it really wasn't that big of a deal. I just did what I could to help." Leah replies, making me chuckle as I approach her.

"And that's what makes you such a nice Pokemon, Leah. That I find really admirable about you." I tell her, getting Leah to blush a darker shade of red as she hears me throw her that compliment. "Jay, I really don't think it's all that praise worthy..." She smiles as she trails off, which gets me to shake my head.

"Now don't sell yourself short, okay? I think that helping out is more than worthy of praise, so there's no need to be so modest. Besides, you like the praise right?" I ask her with a raised eyebrow, which gets her to flush even darker as she nods her head slightly in embarrassment.

"...Yes, I do." The Lucario finally tells me, while Safia grins cheekily as she observes our conversation. "Are you sure there isn't something else you wanna tell Jay, sis?" Like how you feel about him?" She teases the timid jackal, who yelps as she hears what the Zoroark has to say.

"S-safia! What are you even suggesting!?" Leah shouts at her friend, quite flustered by the fact that her half sister had even suggested that. "What? Just looking after the best interests of my sister, that's all." The dark furred lupine simply giggles, making me sigh as I chuckle at the little scene.

"And of course you'd suggest that, Safia. Such a cheeky trickster, you." I accuse the Zoroark, bopping her atop her head with my fist as she sticks her tongue out at me. "Hey, I gotta have my fun somehow." She replies, grinning my way as I nod in reply.

"Well, can't argue with that. But first, let's get you dry first. Fur won't dry as quickly on it's own, so I brought something for that." I tell her, making my way to shore and making sure to wrap a towel around my waist as soon as it comes above the surface. Reaching into my bag, I find the item soon enough.

"There we go. One hair dryer." I mutter, pulling the object out and revving it up to check if it's powered or not. A blast of hot air comes out to greet my hand, indicating that it is indeed fully charged. "Alright, this should help dry up fur a lot faster. Chell, you're up first." I turn to the Dewott, holding up the device and patting the grass beside me.

"Okay!" Chell replies, quickly exiting the water and sitting down by my side. "Now, I'm gonna use the air coming from this to dry you off. Tell me if it gets too hot somewhere, okay?" I inform Chell, to which she nods to show her understanding.

"Sure thing, Mister Jay!" She smiles my way, making me ruffle her wet fur. I hold the dryer a decent distance from her, and turn it on. The resulting warm air causes Chell to shiver from the initial contact, but she quickly gets used to the higher temperature.

"Mmm, that feels nice..." Chell sighs blissfully, enjoying herself as she feels the warm air blowing against her and my hands running through her fur every now and then to make sure I dried it up well. Once she's fully dried, I take out a brush and run it slowly through her fur to smooth it out.

"There, that should do it." I speak up after a couple of minutes worth of brushing, seeing Chell's fur now more neatly uniform and fluffy. "Yay! Thanks, Mister Jay!" Chell cheers, hugging me in a gesture of affection. "No need to worry, kiddo. Now, just let me get started on the others." I tell the Dewott, looking out to the water for my next subject.

"Kat, you're up next. Can't have you all wet for too long, now can we?" I suggest, the Liepard smiling as she slinks over to my side. "And I had assumed that you had forgotten me." She tells me, getting me to slowly move the hair dryer along her form.

"Nah, as if I'd forget. You're really special to me, ya know." I remind her of her place in my heart, which makes the feline blush as she giggles. "Jay, you flatter me." She replies, allowing me to continue drying her off.

"Hey, could ya hurry up? It's starting to get cold here!" Safia yells from her spot in the water, getting me to sigh and look her way. "Alright, just gimme a couple minutes. Water doesn't exactly dry up the fastest, ya know." I reply, the Zoroark getting more impatient by the minute.

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	77. Chapter 76

Chapter 76

[Jay]

"Okay, and that should do it." I finally look up from the tufts of black and red fur that make up Safia's mane, said Zoroark nodding thankfully as she feels it for herself. "Woah, that's really nice and dry!" She comments, getting me to chuckle and run a hand through it.

"I also helped you straighten that fur out a little, to make sure it looks better. Gotta say, you do look nice with neater fur." I comment, Safia grinning as she hears what I have to say. "Really now? Are you just praising yourself for the work, or are you trying to flatter me?" She asks me, raising an eyebrow.

"Can I say both? I do like to believe that I did a good job, and you do look prettier in my opinion." I shoot back at the lupine's cheeky remark, making Safia blush a bit as she hears what I have to say. However, her flustered surprise quickly wears off and her grin returns as quickly as it disappeared.

"Well, thanks for drying me out Jay. Seriously, I had no idea how I was gonna reach the back of my mane." She grins, trying to conceal her slight embarrassment. "No problem, Safia." I tell her, ruffling her now neatly tidied hair and making her laugh as she uses a paw to swat my hand away.

"Geez, I just got this fixed up!" The Zoroark sighs, shaking her head and showing feigned irritation at my friendly gesture. "Thank you, Jay. My fur feels much cleaner now." Leah approaches the two of us, thanking me as well for my help with her own coat.

"You're welcome, Leah. But, seeing you look so nice is thanks enough." I comment on her freshened up look, which makes the Lucario blush a ripe tomato red. "Jay, you really think so?" She timidly asks me, her voice now having lowered in volume as she hides her face in her paws.

"Yeah, I do. You're much fluffier now too, so that makes you even prettier." I add, getting the already flustered Lucario to sound off a surprised yelp as she turns around to hide her embarrassment. Safia laughs at seeing her sister shy away like this, slugging me on the shoulder lightly.

"Jay, you should stop teasing my sister for now. I'm seeing more red than blue!" The Zoroark giggles, to which I pretend to peek at Leah's face before nodding in agreement. "Hey, you're right!" I gasp, before the both of us simply laugh louder in light of Leah's discomfort.

"I believe I also must thank you, Jay. The amount of affection you put into drying me was quite satisfactory." Katrina speaks up, having approached me and wrapped her long tail around my hand. "Heh, I'm glad my sexy kitten liked what I did for her." I reply, which gets the Liepard to blush.

"Jay, you really know how to flatter a lady..." The feline replies, while I smile and plant a kiss atop her forehead. "That isn't true. I love you, so I only know how to flatter you milady." I bow a little in reply to her comment, which gets the Liepard to smile lovingly at me.

"Jay, I love you very much as well." She purrs happily, making me pet her head in response. However, our little moment is quickly interrupted as we catch sight of a Tyranitar rushing through the treeline and reaching our group. "Ty? Is that you?" Safia asks the large reptile, who pants heavily for a bit before speaking up.

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, Jack found a Pokemon and it looks to be in really bad shape. We've been trying to help it, but Jack doesn't have any healing items! None of us know any healing moves, either!" The Tyranitar says rather quickly, looking quite concerned as he frantically points back to our camp.

"Really? Oh no, we have to help it!" Lily gasps, already showing her deep rooted consideration for other Pokemon. "Alright, I gotcha. Come on, team. We gotta go and help it out." I speak up, quickly putting away my hair dryer into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.

"You got it, Mister Jay!" Chell nods in reply to my command, getting up in order to start moving out. "Ah hear ya, Jay." Cleo smiles, as Lily looks my way with wide eyes. "Sir?" She asks me, getting me to smile her way in response.

"It's hurting, and I have what we need to heal it. So, it's only fair that we help it out right?" I tell the Petilil, whose confusion turns to joy as she hears what I have to say. "Y-yes! Thank you, Sir!" Lily thanks me, which gets me to chuckle and pat her head.

"No need for thanks, silly. I did do the same for you, after all." I remind the Petilil, who is now blushing after having come into physical contact with my hand. "Alright, let's go!" Dani adds, floating up into the air and hovers next to me.

"I understand." Nesia replies, getting up and moving over to my side. "We can't just ignore a hurting Pokemon, now can we?" Safia asks rhetorically, Leah following her sister's example and preparing to leave as well. Everyone else seems just about ready to go, so I turn to the worried Tyranitar.

"Okay, Ty. Lead the way, and we'll be right behind you." I tell the large reptile, who nods thankfully as he grins at me. "Thank you for understanding, my friend!" The large Dark and Ground Type Pokemon expresses his gratitude with a booming voice, before he promptly takes off back in the direction he came from.

"Holy crap, the guy runs fast!" Alita comments, mouth agape as she stares at the parted trees and shrubs in disbelief. "I know right? Holy shit, that took me by surprise. Didn't know the big guy had it in 'em." Safia chuckles as she grins wryly, making me shake my head in disbelief myself.

"Come on, girls. We gotta follow 'em, so get there as quick as you can." I remind everyone of why he ran like a bat out of hell in the first place, getting everyone to start running after the big guy all the way back to camp. However, since most of everyone is a Pokemon and is much faster than I am, I end up lagging behind.

"Sir, please wait for us!" I hear Lily not too far behind me, to which I turn around to see the Petilil, along with Dani, Belladonna and Taylor all struggling to keep up with their friends. "Geez, they're fast!" Belladonna pants, her legs having trouble keeping up.

"Wait for us, you fucking morons!" Taylor yells out to the rest of the group, which goes unheard as they rush ahead. Since they're running even slower than me, I only have one option to solve this issue. Taking matters into my own hands quite literally, I scoop all four small Pokemon into my arms and take off after the rest of the team.

"Hey! What the fuck do you think you're doing, you ass!?" Taylor yells at me, to which I use my free hand to gesture to the rest of the Pokemon ahead of us. "Duh. We need to catch up." I point out the obvious, before my eye begins to glow blue.

"How are you gonna do that? In case you haven't noticed, everyone else is much faster than you are." Belladonna is kind enough to point that out, which gets Dani to nod in agreement. "Yeah, Jay. You're not catching up to them any time soon." The Cottonee adds, getting me to smirk in reply.

"Don't worry, I have tricks of my own. You might wanna hold onto something, though." I tell the four nestled in my embrace, directing a surge of magical energy to my own body and increasing my overall movement speed. Almost immediately, the scenery around us whizzes by much faster as I run.

"Woah, woah, woah! Slow down a little, Jay!" Dani yelps, surprised by the sudden gap in my running. As such, she is forced to use her leafy appendages to grad a hold of my arm as I sprint along. "Gah, holy shit!" Taylor curses, having used her silk to stick to my arm along with Belladonna.

"Sir, I'm slipping…!" Lily cries out from below me, which causes me to look down and see the Petilil slowly sliding out of my arms. "Crap, me too!" Belladonna yelps, while I feel two small forms slipping out from under my arms at the same time.

In response, I use my magic to hold everyone in place by holding onto the Souls of all four of them. It works a charm, sending the Cottonee and the Venipede back into my hold and keeping the both of them there. "Whew, that was way too close..." Belladonna sighs, looking my way with a thankful gaze.

"Thank you, Sir!" Lily shows her gratitude with no shortage of enthusiasm, to which I chuckle as I quickly gain on the rest of the team. "No prob, Lily. Now, let me focus on catching up- Woah!" I tell her, narrowly missing a tree root that could have fucked up my foot along with my running stance.

"Geez, that was close." I sigh, before Dani points up ahead of us. "Jay, I see light up ahead!" The Cottonee speaks up, to which I look up from the ground to see that there is indeed a clearing up ahead. I can even make out the beginnings of the fire pit from here, and the team standing around.

"Thanks, Dani." I nod to the Grass Type, immediately ceasing the flow of magic to my body and slowing my own pace down as the effects of the magic wear off. Once I reach the clearing, I can fully stop myself from skidding all over the place as I stop right next to where everyone else is.

"Whew, made it." I breathe, a little tired from the running and the use of my own magic. "What kinda Pokemon are we looking at here?" I ask Jack as I set the four small Pokemon onto the ground, the chubby Trainer kneeling next to the sleeping bag he was resting in last night. Jack turns to me, a worried expression lining his features.

"Well, we were having breakfast when this Pokemon tried to get some food from me. When I gave it some, it just collapsed! I've been trying to help it since." The teenager replies, Ty looking equally as worried as his Trainer is. I decide to take a look, to see what Pokemon we're dealing with. Inside the bag is… No fucking way.

"Holy shit." I breathe, looking the unconscious Pokemon over. It's resting for now, but it's got the same healing scars on it's hind legs. It's even got the same malnourished look to it, the poor Deerling trying it's best to cling to life. Form the looks of it, those wounds seem to be infected.

"What is it, Jay?" Jack asks me, to which I turn my gaze to him. "That's the same Deerling that tried to take food from me yesterday. It ran away when I tried to feed it, too." I tell him, before placing a hand to my chin as my expression changes considerably and my brows furrow.

"What's wrong, Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, her expression shifting to one of concern once she sees my troubled look. "Well, the problem is what I found before I came across the Deerling. A bunch of Sawsbuck, all murdered in cold blood and missing their antlers." I tell everyone present, Jack's expression becoming angry as he hears me out.

"So what you're saying, is that this Deerling might be a victim of illegal hunting?" The chubby Trainer concludes for me, which gets me to nod in response with a grim look. "Yeah. I wasn't sure at first, but the scars and the marks on the trees from the scene prove it." I reply, Chell quickly becoming confused about the whole thing.

"Mister Jay, what's illegal hunting?" Chell asks me, which makes my eyes narrow at those words. "Well, some Pokemon are protected by human rules. So, it's against our rules to kill them for fun. However, some people kill protected Pokemon for fun anyway, and that's illegal hunting." I explain, Nesia nodding in disgust at the notion.

"I see. It sounds very despicable." The Servine concludes, with the team mostly inclined to agree with that. "But why would they kill Pokemon for fun in the first place? That sounds so mean!" Lily asks me, a hurt expression on her face that makes me hurt inside. Why would anyone hurt a creature this cute?

"Well, that's because most people don't see Pokemon as equals. They think that Pokemon are mindless animals, so they find it okay to kill them for their own sick enjoyment." I tell the Petilil, Safia gritting her teeth angrily as she hears what my explanation.

"That's seriously messed up." The Zoroark growls as well, while Nova sighs in resignation to this fact. "However, that's just how most humans act." She speaks up, most likely speaking from her own experience with the bastards who had raped her while she was helpless.

"Even so, that's so fucking sick and wrong!" Taylor shouts, her expression one of disgust and anger. Alita quickly siding with the Bug Type on this one as her expression becomes angry. "What the fuck is wrong with those people!? They can't just do that!" The Unfezant yells, to which I respond by patting her head with a sigh.

"I agree, Ali. That's exactly what I hate about my kind." I shake my head, knowing that for now it's hopeless to try and get such arrogant creatures to change their ways. Hearing this, the Flying Type looks to me with a blush and gets my attention.

"W-well, you're not like that at all. Don't loop yourself in with them, you idiot." She mutters, making me chuckle as I stroke her body. "Yeah, you ass. You're nothing like those sick fucks." Taylor adds, her serious gaze directed my way as she tells me that.

"Aw, thanks for that." I thank the Unfezant and Sewaddle, who blush deeper as they huff. "I was just stating facts, idiot! You don't need to thank me..." She trails off, clearly flustered. "I was just saying you weren't bad, you ass. Doesn't mean that I like you at all, got it?" Taylor growls, her blush telling me otherwise.

"Alright, I hear the both of ya. There, there." I grin, opting to pat the two adorably dishonest Pokemon atop their heads. Slowly but surely, I see their expressions softening as they feel my ministrations, neither side complaining about it. Their blushes are still in full effect, though.

"Are you sure you won't change your minds, though? I'm pretty likable, if these three are any indication." I ask them as I gesture to my loves, which causes them to glare at me in response. "NO!" Both the Sewaddle and the Unfezant yell my way, which makes me flinch.

"Okay, geez. I was just asking." I sigh, faking my frown as Chell and Katrina giggle at the harsh words directed at me. "You two are such bad liars!" Chell snorts, while Nesia simply shakes her head at what she hears them say. "Be more honest with yourselves." The Servine says, smiling at the heated glares she's given.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean!?" Alita growls at the two, which Nesia promptly ignores and hugs my arm affectionately. God, she's being so cute! However, the Deerling coughs weakly as soon as that thought rushes through my head, and Jack redirects his attention from it to me.

"Uh, Jay? I think it's health is getting worse!" Jack informs me, his expression now showing some of his impatience as he speaks with urgency. "Stop wasting time and help." The Venusaur grunts from the side, his glare pointed at me as Ty wordlessly agrees with the large Grass Type.

"Alright, hold up for a sec. Let me feel it's forehead for a bit..." I speak up, placing my hand to the little Season Pokemon's head. It's burning up with a fever, if the high heat I feel is any indication. "Crap, it's hungry and has a fever? This isn't good at all…" I grimace, the situation very concerning.

"What do we do!?" Jack yelps, panicking as he has no idea of how to go about this problem. "We have to help it!" Lily speaks up, quite fearful for what might happen to the suffering Pokemon. "I know, but what can we do?" Dani asks in return, as her expression conveys her helplessness.

"Calm down, guys. Let me see here…" I sigh, reaching for my phone and pulling up a document I had saved in it. Pulling it open, I read through it's contents to figure out what I need to help the Deerling. Okay, so we need to find a willow tree, or some meadowsweet. Meadowsweet doesn't grow here though, so that leaves the willow tree.

"What are you doing?" Leah asks, seeing me pull up my document and scrolling through it quickly. "I'm looking through my phone to see if I have any herbs that could help with that fever it's got." I sigh, turning off my phone now that I have the data I need.

"Okay, I have a lead. I'll get what you need to treat the Deerling's infected wounds, but I'll be leaving soon." I tell them, which earns me a round of strange looks. "Wait, where are you even going?" Dani asks me, Cleo and Leah giving me similar looks of confusion.

"You're not just going to leave it to die, are you?" Taylor asks me, already doubting me and causing Lily's eye to widen in shock. "Sir, we can't leave the Deerling to suffer like this! We just can't!" Lily cries, tearing up as she assumes the worst and eyes me with disbelief.

"No, I'm not leaving it to suffer Lily. I didn't say we were leaving. I need to find a willow tree to help the Deerling, which should be plentiful in this forest." I explain to the Petilil, who realizes that she had jumped to an unreasonable conclusion as her face flushes red in embarrassment.

"O-oh! Sorry for that..." Lily mumbles, her expression looking quite guilty now as she realizes her doubt had been misplaced. "Eh, it's fine. I didn't really explain myself clearly, so you're not to blame." I assure the little Grass Type, ruffling her head leaves and getting her to blush and nod as she looks up at me.

"Alright, Jack. Here's some anti-inflammatory paste for the Deerling's wounds. Rub it into the affected area, so that it'll be able to work it's magic." I instruct Jack on what to do, handing him the tube of cream. In response, Jack nods as he hears me out.

"So I don't get the Deerling to eat it." He speaks up, making me sigh. "Yeah, you dunce." I chuckle, before Leah grabs my attention. "Jay, I'm coming with you." She suggests, which gets me to raise an eyebrow as I look her way. "Leah? I mean sure, but why the sudden willingness to go?" I ask the Lucario, who blushes as she looks to the forest around us.

"I think you could use some protection while you find the willow tree, Jay. I'll protect you while you search." The jackal offers, which gets me to smile thankfully. "Thanks for the considerate offer, Leah. I think I'll take you up on that." I chuckle, getting the Lucario to smile as her gaze meets mine.

"I'm coming along too, sis." Safia speaks up, putting a hand on the Lucario's shoulder once she's done listening to her. "Safia? But why?" Leah asks the lupine, who smirks in response to that question. "Do you really have to ask? I'm helping you with defending this moron." The Zoroark replies, making me frown.

"Ow." I sniff in a fake manner, which gets a snicker out of the lupine. "Besides, I wouldn't want you to get hurt too badly. Who knows what he'll make you do out there?" Safia adds, getting Leah's face to quickly heat up once she realizes the implications of what her sister is saying.

"Safia!" Leah yelps, blushing madly as she hides her face behind her paws. "Enough messing around, Safia. Let's go." I sigh, before Chell walks up to me, a determined stare on her face. "I'm coming too, Mister Jay!" The Dewott declares, before I shoot her down with a shake of my head.

"No can do, kiddo. I need you here, to look out for everyone else. You'll have a better chance of sensing danger if there are more of you, so please do this for me." I plead with the Dewott, getting her to back down and reluctantly go with my plan.

"Okay, Mister Jay." Chell frowns, giving me one of her sad looks and causing my heart to ache. Damn it, I feel like an asshole for taking advantage of her love for me already. "Come on, then. Let's find that willow tree." I suggest, before Nova interrupts me with a poke from her short appendages.

"Jay, I should come with you as well. Most Bug Types are weak to fire, correct? As such, I think I will be very helpful in your efforts." The Volcarona suggests, to which I sigh. "Sorry, but no. I can't risk a forest fire, and those trees are very close together." I shake my head, getting me a sad look from her.

"I see. Then I shall stay here." The large Fire Moth Pokemon replies, to which I give her a horns a nice rub. "Don't worry, Nova. I'll be back before ya know it, so sit tight." I chuckle, Safia grinning as she places an arm around my shoulder.

"Don't worry! It won't be too hard to keep an eye on him, I promise!" The lupine assures the Volcarona, who smiles at the Zoroark. "Alright, then I shall take your word for it. Good luck." She nods, before I take off with my knife in my pocket and both Leah and Safia in tow.

"Lead the way, boss." Safia grins, taking off after me as Leah tries to keep up with the two of us. "Wait for me!" She pleads, which does get the both of us to slow down enough for her to catch up. "So, what does the tree even look like?" Safia asks me after a bit of walking around, my eyes not leaving the scenery in case I miss what we're looking for.

"You should recognize it by it's drooping branches and it's low hanging leaves. The leaves are a dark green, and are long and thin. I need to get some of the inner pinkish bark of the tree." I tell the Zoroark, who nods in understanding as she and Leah begin to scour the surrounding area.

"Okay, that shouldn't be too hard." Safia replies, as we walk alongside each other in the direction we had chosen to go in. "Jay, I have a question to ask you. Well, if you don't mind, that is." Leah suddenly speaks up next to me, which gets me to nod as I continue to look around the environment.

"Sure thing, Leah. Shoot." I tell her, getting the Lucario to approach me once she hears my answer. "It's about your scars, Jay. How did you get those to begin with?" Leah asks me, to which I sigh as my smile becomes wry. I haven't told her much about my past yet, haven't I?

"Well, you already know how I was designed to be a god slayer. But that's not what I'm doing now, right?" I begin my explanation, to which Safia smirks my way from the sidelines. "Yeah, we can see that for ourselves." She quips, making me roll my eyes and smirk her way in kind.

"Very funny, Safia. Anyways, the company that paid to make me wanted to make me their weaponized slave, but my dad didn't want that for me. So, he tried to bust me out." I tell the two bipedal Pokemon, Leah looking quite curious about what had happened.

"So what went down, anyways?" The Zoroark raises an eyebrow my way, which quickly makes my smile become sad as I recall the dregs of my past. "Well, he died." I shrug, letting loose a sad sigh when I speak those words. Every time, it's like stabbing myself where it hurts the most.

"Oh. Uh, sorry for bringing that up." Safia sucks in a breath through her teeth, knowing that she had just made the situation worse. Not to mention, a lot more awkward for her. "Jay, I had no idea that your dad..." Leah sniffs, unable to bring herself to finish as she realizes what she had made me recall.

"Eh, it's fine. What's done is done, and there's nothing I can do to change that." I reply, shaking my head once I receive their apologies. "Jay..." Leah smiles despite herself, allowing me to chuckle as I pet her atop her head in order to calm her down.

"Don't feel bad for me, alright? I already feel bad enough for myself, and I don't need you adding to that lump of sadness." I chuckle jokingly, Leah giggling at the self deprived humor while a blush spreads itself onto her face. Leah, you might just make my heart stop with all this cute...!

"Seriously, you're way too forgiving." Safia sighs, a wry smile etched on her features as she gives me a thankful glance. In response, I decide to reach out and pet her head, too. "Nah, I just find forgiving you to be a lot easier." I shoot back at the lupine, who chuckles when she feels me pet her.

"Geez, Jay. What are you even doing?" Safia asks me, using her paw to gently brush my hand away from her head. "Petting you, duh. I feel that even you could use some affection every now and then." I tell her as I resume my petting of her head, which catches her off guard and makes a light blush color her cheeks.

"Jay, you're always so nice to us. Even now, you still decide to forgive us. Why is that?" Leah asks me, her soft smile lining her face as I continue to pet her. "We're a team, and teammates forgive and forget. Besides, being sad just doesn't suit you, Leah. I like it better when you're happy." I reply, smiling as I see the Lucario blush.

"Well, I guess this isn't so bad..." The Zoroark replies, looking into my eyes as she receives my caring gesture. "Tell me about it. I get to make you feel better, and touch your soft fur? That's a win-win situation right there." I throw a smile her way, which makes Safia grin as she hears me say that.

"Don't tell me you're just in it for my fur, Jay." Safia grins cheekily as she accuses me of taking advantage of her, which gets me to shake my head with a grin of my own. "No way, Safia. You're special to me, just like everyone else in the team is. Your happiness comes first, in my book." I deny her words, making the lupine blush a deeper shade of red.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're flirting with me." The Zoroark smiles, her gaze now becoming bashful as she listens to my motives behind my forgiving nature. "Well, would you mind if I was?" I ask Safia in return, the Dark Type smirking as she looks at me with half lidded eyes.

"Well, now that you say that..." She purrs, before using her illusory powers to shift into something she assumes would be more appealing for me. She's now taken the form of a voluptuous woman with red hair, her breasts and ass quite shapely as she rubs her newly formed assets together.

"S-safia! What are you doing!?" Leah yelps upon seeing her sister's transformation, a protest that gets promptly ignored as the Zoroark turned human now continues to make her advances on me. My face flushes, my rapidly inflating member choosing to make my intentions very clear to the lupine.

"Is this why you decided to flirt with me, Jay? Because you wanted these?" Safia huskily whispers, holding her boobs up to my chest and pressing them against me. She moans as her nipples make contact with my chest, her hands now reaching below my waistline to caress my erection.

"Wouldn't you love to take me right now, big boy? To throw me to the ground, and have your wicked way with this body of mine?" Safia murmurs into my ear, her hands now touching my dick all over from the other side of it's cloth prison as she makes me back up against a tree.

"Safia! That…" Leah objects to what her sister is doing, with a huge deep red blush on her face now. Seriously, she's more red than blue! "…That isn't fair at all..." The jackal pouts, looking away from the scene of Safia trying to seduce me into revealing my true intentions.

However, I respond by gently clasping her hands in mine and stepping away from her so that her fake breasts no longer press up against my chest. "Safia, please change back to your original form. There's something I need to tell you." I tell her, giving her a serious look as my smile disappears.

"Jay?" Safia asks me, looking just as surprised as Leah is that I had turned her down like that. "Look, I didn't say all those things because I wanted to get at having sex with you. I really meant what I said about you, all of it." I assure her, which gets the illusion surrounding the lupine to fade as she hears me out.

"If I had wanted you because of your ability to be something you're not, I would have asked another human girl out by now. I told you I liked your mane, because I really do. I like your tomboyish attitude, your personality, and how tough you are." I continue, as the lupine's eyes widen at what I have to say.

"I like you for you, Safia. I like you as a Zoroark, not some random human bimbo with huge boobs and pale skin. So please, don't try to hide yourself from me." I tell the Zoroark with as much honesty as I can muster, Safia looking at me for a little bit before laughing out loud.

"Hey! I'm being serious, you know!" I frown, a little peeved that my honest opinion had been laughed at. "Safia! It's very rude to laugh at someone after they say something like that!" Leah is also a little annoyed that her sister had waved off my words like that, crossing her arms as she tells the lupine off.

In response, Safia shakes her head when she hears our complaints. "No, I'm not laughing at what you said. It's just that I find it funny that I doubted you in the first place. Now I see why Leah's so interested in you." Safia replies, looking at me bashfully once more as she blushes. God, even she's becoming cute now!

"Well, I kinda realized that she was interested in me since day one." I tell the Zoroark in reply, making said Lucario yelp in embarrassment as she hears that. "Even you knew, Jay? Uuuu…." The jackal moans, hiding her flustered face behind her paws as Safia and I laugh at the poor Lucario.

"Since you asked so nicely, I'll try being me more often then. Now, are we gonna find that tree or what?" Safia promises me, which brings a genuine smile to my face as she says that. "We have a deal, then." I chuckle, before walking off again to find that willow tree.

"No guarantees, though." The Zoroark cheekily adds at the end of that sentence, getting me to chuckle as I shake my head. "Jay, is that the tree we're looking for?" Leah suddenly asks me after a few minutes of walking and casual banter, which gets me to turn my attention to what she's gesturing to.

Surely enough, the tree that's standing tall before us has the drooping branches and the thin, dark green leaves that match the description of my medicinal document completely. Walking up to the tree, I take some leaves and crush them in my hand in order to sniff the resulting crushed plant matter.

"Yup, it's the right tree. Nice find, Leah." I praise the jackal and pet her head, who smiles and averts her gaze as she hears me say that. "It really isn't that big of a deal, Jay..." She says shyly, to which I shake my head. "Yes, it is. You're just downplaying the importance of your findings, Leah." I assure the Lucario, seeing her blush a darker red in response.

"So, now what? I mean, this tree doesn't exactly look the healthiest." Safia asks, staring at the tree's drooping branches as she lifts one up to observe it. "That's natural for willows. They just seem to have drooping branches, no matter the species." I explain, before taking out my knife and stabbing it into the bark of the tree.

"Alright, just let me pry loose a small piece of this bark here, and then we'll be good to go." I tell the two bipedal Pokemon beside me, getting to work on the tree and carving a square of bark from the woody stem of the plant. As I work however, Leah suddenly lays her thoughts on me.

"Um, Jay? This may seem like a strange question, but I can't help but notice that no Bug Type Pokemon have attacked us yet." Leah speaks up, Safia raising an eyebrow at her friend's observation. "Come to think of it, yeah. We haven't seen anyone else around here, Pokemon or animal." The Zoroark adds, making me nod in agreement.

"You're right. Something's up." I frown, immediately getting more tense as I occasionally look away from my work to see if anything has managed to sneak up on me. They do have a point there. Normally, Pokemon and animals should be thriving in forests untouched by humans. If they're not around, then they're either really good at hiding, or someone else is here with us.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." I suddenly jump a little at the sound of another human voice from the trees surrounding our position, Leah and Safia quickly becoming on edge upon hearing the voice as well. Whoever said that doesn't have the best intentions, that's for sure.

"Who's there?" I ask, before I see a single person exit the brush with a gun on his shoulder. He's tall, with a decent muscle build for endurance. He's got a thick black vest on, and a scruffy beard to top it off. "What do you want?" I growl, Safia and Leah both glaring daggers at the shady man.

"Here I was thinking I'd find another decent catch, and I find a Lucario and a Zoroark. This'll get me big bucks for sure." He grins darkly, before he holds his hand to his mouth, puts two fingers between his lips and whistles loudly.

"Come on out, boys! We've got ourselves a big fuckin' payday over here!" The guy cackles, as the three of us see multiple goons with guns of their own, along with a pack's worth of Houndoom appear and surround us. There are six goons minus their leader, each with a Pokemon and a gun of their own.

"Guys, get ready. We're gonna have to fight our way outta this one." I growl, letting my magic flow through me in preparation to kick some ass. "Ready when you are, boss." Safia replies, eyeing the enemies in from of her while Leah raises her paws that are now curled up into fists.

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	78. Chapter 77

Chapter 77

[Jay]

"Just hand those Pokemon over, kid. No one's gonna get hurt if ya do." One of the hunters grins, as he eyes the Lucario and Zoroark like they're pieces of meat. "Uh, how about no? I'm not gonna just hand these two over." I roll my eyes, watching as the hunter's face sours and he raises his gun to aim at me.

"Fine, then. We'll just have to do this the hard way, you little brat." The man sneers, before his friends level their barrels to face the three of us. "Jay, what do we do? They've got guns!" Leah whispers to me, Safia also looking my way with concern. However, I simply gesture to my eye to calm their nerves.

"You sure you wanna do that?" I chuckle, closing my right eye to erect a magic barrier and giving my opponents a wide grin. "Just give it up already, brat. In case you haven't noticed, we've got you surrounded." The first guy grins, before lifting his finger to touch the trigger of his gun.

"Then shoot me. Or are the lot of you too scared to follow through with those threats of yours?" I chuckle, taunting the man and making his expression shift to an angry one. "That's it! Open fire on the little shit!" He yells at his friends, who all fire upon me as soon as the order is given.

"Wrong move, pal." I grin widely, all the tranquilizer darts having been stopped mid-flight by my magic. The rounds, now surrounded by a blue glow as my eye shines in the same color, causes all the hunters' eyes to widen as they all take a step back in shock and fear.

"What the fuck is happening!?" One of them shouts, alarmed that all their attempts to subdue me had failed so miserably. In response, I laugh and release my hold on their tranquilizer darts. As the little needles fall to the ground, I wink at the two bipedal Pokemon beside me.

"Showoff." Safia smirks, shaking her head as she watches my magic dissipate. "Don't just stand there! Tell those stupid dogs to attack already!" The leader of the goons shouts, trying to load a new dart into his gun. "S-sic 'em, boys!" One of the goons shouts, which immediately gets the Houndoom to attack.

"Leah, Power-Up Punch! Safia, use Shadow Claw!" I quickly command the two Pokemon, the Lucario quickly delivering a quick energy imbued punch to the snout of the closest Dark and Fire Type hound. The resulting fist to the nose causes the dog to yelp in pain, a crack resounding through the area.

"Yeesh, that has to hurt." Safia winces as she stares at the Houndoom with a broken nose, before her now elongated claws slice into a particular Houndoom that was edging a little too close with a cheeky Fire Fang attack. The dog growls in anger as it backs off, having had it's attack foiled.

"Oh, no! I didn't hurt him too badly, did I?" Leah yelps as soon as she hears the sound of the Houndoom's nose getting bashed in, which gets me to sigh and shake my head at the jackal. Seriously, she can be a little too considerate of the well being of others sometimes...

"Leah, it's either them or you now! And I'd prefer it to be them over you, so don't waste time pitying them!" I shout at the Lucario from behind her, which snaps her back to reality. "R-right!" Leah replies, before she gets bitten by another Houndoom that had snuck up on her while we were talking.

"Aah!" Leah screams, her voice in that moment bloodcurdling to hear as she takes the flaming bite of the Dark Pokemon to the arm. The teeth of the Houndoom sink in and cause a wound on the jackal's arm, before the fire coating the mouth of the hound sets her fur and the wound alight.

"Leah! Get off her, you fuck!" Safia yells, having been distracted by the sight of seeing her sister get bitten by a move she's weak to. "Hold on, Leah!" I shout, using my magic to unhinge the jaws of the Houndoom attacking Leah, before flinging the mutt away from the Lucario.

"You alright, Leah?" I ask the Lucario, who breathes heavily as she gets up and clutches her wounded arm. "Yeah, I'll be fine..." Leah replies, before she tries to get back into the fight despite having an arm out of commission. In response to her bold move, I sigh as I move in between the jackal.

"Jay, what are you doing!?" Leah yelps, surprised that I had done that so quickly. "Safia! Focus on your side, and I'll protect Leah!" I shout back at the Zoroark, while I summon a bone to bash a Houndoom in the side of its face. Safia nods in reply, quickly leaping out of the way of a Flamethrower.

"You'd better!" Safia smirks, while I continue to look around us to observe the situation. "Safia, Shadow Claw on the one to your left! Leah, use Aura Sphere if you can! I got the front!" I tell the two Pokemon, as both bipedal Pokemon get to work.

"Suck on this, asshole!" Safia shouts, using her Shadow Claw to slash rapidly at another pair of Houndooms that were trying to sink their teeth into her. The dogs are immediately repelled by the flurry of slicing moves, one of the hounds falling over as it faints.

"Watch out!" I hear Leah shout, the Lucario blasting an Aura Sphere towards Safia's general direction and smacking another Houndoom in the snout. As another crack sounds, the struck Pokemon also keels over quickly, Leah's attack having proven to be too much to handle.

"Whew, that was close! Thanks, sis!" Safia thanks her sister, giving her a thankful gaze. "No problem!" The Lucario replies, to which I grin as I raise my makeshift weapon to smack a Houndoom across the skull, stunning it and allowing Leah to fire another Aura Sphere at it to finish the job.

"Fire away!" I suddenly hear from the right, to which I instinctively raise another magic barrier to slow down any ranged attacks those hunters could be planning against us. Sure enough, the barrier stops the new volley of tranquilizer darts that the goons had shot.

"Come on, guys. Show a little more creativity, will ya?" I sigh as I use my bone to smack yet another approaching Houndoom in the face, the beasts apparently not having heard of long ranged attacks before. The hell hound looking Pokemon whimpers in pain, before Leah's Aura Sphere finishes it off.

Safia are having no difficulty handling the remaining Houndoom now that their numbers have thinned from seven to four. "Alright, team! Good work!" I grin, but I fail to realize that a hell houd has found it's way behind my line of vision.

"Help me!" Leah yelps, which gets me to turn around and raise my hand to try and stop the dog. "Lights out, buddy!" Safia yells, beating me to the punch. She smashes a large Shadow Ball into the snout of the Houndoom, using a slam dunk motion that would have made Kobe Bryant proud.

"Nice save, Safia!" I cheer, summoning some bones and sending them flying at two miore Houndoom to disorient them. Leah is quick to recover from the surprise attack, launching one more Aura Sphere before the two hell hounds can recover. The resulting attack conks them out, their two forms slumping to the ground.

"You're the last one standing, buddy. What's it gonna be?" I ask the last Fire and Dark Type Pokemon remaining, purposefully making my grin wider as my iris burns with a blue flame of magic. "Don't just stand there, get 'em!" The hunter commanding the dog shouts, albeit a little fearfully.

Whimpering, the Houndoom quickly flees with it's tail between it's legs, leaving it's masters to fend for themselves. Well, at least it knows to back away from a fight it can't win. "Oh shit, that kid's a monster! I have to get outta here!" One hunter yelps, screaming in fear as he runs away from the area.

"Stop right there, assholes!" Safia growls, ready top give chase to the spineless cowards, before I place a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Hold up for a sec, Safia. I have an easier way of catching them." I chuckle, preparing my magic once more.

"Hey! Wait for us!" The other hunters yelp, turning tail and fleeing the scene as well. "Hey! Get back here and finish the job, you wimps!" The leader shouts at his men, only for all of the hunters to suddenly be held in place without any warning.

"H-hey! What gives!?" One of the hunters screams out in fear, struggling against the hold of my magic as he tries to get away. "I can't move any further!" Another yelps, before they're all pushed to the ground with a quick flick of my wrist.

"Who said you could run away, hmm? I have way too many questions that I want answered before you get to leave, gentlemen." I chuckle, walking up to the nearest man and eyeing him with a sadistic, almost evil grin.

"Do your worst, kid! I ain't tellin' you squat!" The guy defiantly spits in my face, which makes me sigh as I hear what he has to say. "Alright, then. I guess I'll take you up on that." I respond, before I will blue bones to burst through their arms and legs.

"What the fuck!?" Safia gapes, seeing me simply murder them in cold blood. Leah is speechless, her eyes wide as she falls to her knees at the loss of life. Or, so it seems. "Uh, what's up with you two? They're not dead." I deadpan, which gets the two to look on in surprise.

"Ah! I'm dying! I'm- wait, what?" The hunters are all screaming in agony, before they realize that they're not getting hurt by the bones in their limbs. They can't move either, my magic still holding onto their Souls and allowing me to approach the others.

"These are blue bones, and they're almost like ghost attacks. If you don't move, you'll be fine. If you do however, those bones will become real and punch a hole in whatever limb you decide to move." I grin at the hunters, one of them scoffing at me.

"You're bluffing, kid. I'll just get up and- ARGH!" One of the hunters was foolish enough to defy my advice and move his arms up anyways, causing the bones in his arms to turn white and blink into existence in his arms. I hear a crack as the bones appear in his arms, making me wince.

"Oh god, it hurts! It hurts so much!" The guy wails pitifully, desperately trying to make the pain stop. However, his struggling is for naught as his legs end up moving. As such, the bones embedded in his legs become real and puncture his lower limbs as well, effectively immobilizing him with another sickening crack.

"Holy shit..." Safia gulps, horrified by my method of immobilizing the guy. "Jay, why…" Leah whispers as she seems to be in shock as well, tears streaming down her face as she sees the guy writhe and grovel in pain. Seeing their expressions, I sigh before facing the two.

"Listen, It's not as bad as it looks. I just fractured his arms and legs, that's all. It'll heal." I assure the two bipedal Pokemon, Safia eyeing me with uncertainty. "Well, if you say so..." She trails off, not that comfortable with my methods of interrogation. Leah simply looks away, not wanting to talk at all.

"Please make it stop! The pain, it burns!" The guy babbles, tears streaming down his face as blood trickles freely from the bones now lodged in his four limbs. And he was so courageous about his choice, too. As all the other hunters seize up in absolute terror at the fate of their weakly thrashing friend, I chuckle ominously to grab their attention.

"Now, does anyone else want to move?" I ask them nicely, my eyes concealed by my hairline as I speak. Seeing the series of panicked head shaking from the goons, I smile. "Good. Now, would any of you know about the Sawsbuck killings around here recently?" I ask the scared shit-less men, who are all too happy to reply.

"We were just earning our keep, okay!? We didn't know they were your Pokemon! Oh God, please don't hurt me!" The guy I'm kneeling next to whimpers, his line of vision darting frantically from the blue bones in his limbs and back to me. Seeing him like this, I sigh before I stand up to stretch my legs.

"Relax, dude. They weren't my Pokemon. If they were, you've died already." I calmly tell him, my anger concealed behind my smile. However, that doesn't seem to make the guy any less terrified of me. Not that I blame him, though. If I were powerless like he was, I'd be scared too.

"As long as I get the information I need, you don't get hurt. Fair trade, right?" I assure the downed man, who nods quickly, afraid that what happened to his buddy might happen to him. "Alright, next question. Do you work for anybody, or are you just hunting buddies with the guys over there?" I ask the man, who shakes his head.

"We don't work for nobody, I swear!" The man quickly says, before I feel his heart beat a little faster as sweat begins to form on his brow. I sense a change in his Soul, a negative one at that. He's lying, the bastard. "Not a good liar, now are ya? I told you before, I wanted answers." I growl, my eye flaring up with a blue flame again.

"I'm not lying, kid! I swear!" The grunt yelps, before I place a hand on the blue bone that's keeping his left arm from moving. "Listen, I will now count to three. If I don't get the truth after that, I'll break your arm. One." I begin counting right after my threat, the man's sweating only increasing as I do so.

"I told you the truth, damn it! What more do you want!?" The hunter goon screams, his eyes growing wide as he realizes that I'm seriously considering breaking his arm. "Think about it. Not only will you feel pain after I reach three, you won't be fapping with this arm anytime soon. Two." I tell him, the guy finally caving in at the second count.

"Fine, fine! We work for this group that called themselves Team Rocket! They hired us to kill those Pokemon, and buy those antlers after meeting up at a certain spot! I don't know anything else about 'em, I swear! I don't even know the guy who called us!" The grunt confesses, tears streaming down his face as he imparts the information.

"Alright, that'll be it. Now, I'll take my leave. I have things to do, and you're no longer useful to me." I speak up, using my magic to temporarily render the hunters unconscious. Team Rocket… Now that's a name I haven't heard of in a long time. Kinda wish I never had to, but I guess it's inevitable.

"Okay, I'm done." I speak up to Safia and Leah, who have remained relatively quiet during my interrogation. Safia seems a little uneasy that I had done such a thing, while Leah is still unwilling to face me, her head buried in her hands as she sobs.

"Come on, I didn't hurt the guy too badly. He'll be fine." I reassure the two, Safia turning to stare at me with uncertainty. "I get it, Jay. But uh, you had this freaky look in your eyes. Like you were seriously thinking about killing those guys." The Zoroark tells me, to which I avert my gaze from hers out of guilt.

"Oh. Sorry about that, then. I get told it happens when I'm angry, and I don't really know when I start making that face." I sheepishly shrug, not really knowing what to say to the lupine that would help with the current situation. However, Leah has another question for me.

"Jay, why did you hurt the guy like that?" Leah asks me, still sniffling from behind her paws as she questions my motives for inflicting such pain on the poor sap. "Well, I needed answers, and he wasn't gonna talk with empty threats." I explain, getting the Lucario to angrily shake her head.

"No! They were already down on the ground, so why did you hurt them like that! They couldn't have fought back, so it wasn't right to hurt them like you did!" Leah yells at me, her angry yet teary eyes showing her pity for those men and her newfound hatred of my methods of getting information.

"Listen, I don't exactly like hurting the helpless either." I sigh, moving to snap a couple of tree branches from the trees around us. "Well you didn't look like it when that guy got hurt!" Leah argues, tears forming in her eyes as she glances at the bloodied arms and legs of the guy that had moved.

"It was an act, okay? I needed to act like I was okay with their suffering, otherwise they wouldn't have talked." I shoot back, tearing a few vines from the trees around us as the jackal continues to glare daggers into my back. Well, I don't blame her. I mean, I just violated one of the most important rules of chivalry that all Lucario just so happen to uphold religiously.

"Still, it wasn't right." Leah mumbles, her anger still not showing any signs of subsiding. In response to her anger, I simply sigh as I walk over to her. "Leah, I'm not gonna ask for your forgiveness on this one. I did something your species just can't accept, and I don't blame you for sticking to your beliefs." I tell her, not getting much of a reaction from the jackal.

"Just know that I had my own reasons for doing what I did back there. I feel like trash for doing what I did, but I hope you'll get why I did it." I sigh, before kneeling down to the guy that had all four of his limbs broken. Seeing me come close to the guy again, Leah starts charging up a Power Up Punch.

"Jay, do not touch him." She growls, determined to stop me from making contact with the injured man. "But if I don't, then who's gonna make splints for the guy?" I raise an eyebrow, which causes Leah to lower her curled fists in confusion.

"Splints?" The Lucario repeats what I had said, getting me to nod in response. "Yeah. Splints are what keeps broken bones in place, to stop them from healing wrong." I explain, placing two sticks on either side of the guy's arms and wrapping some vines around the affected area.

"There. That should keep those bones from moving out of place." I sigh, before taking a tube of cream out of my pocket and applying it to the holes in the guy's hands and legs. "What's that stuff?" Safia asks, both curious and a little disgusted by the rather gruesome sight of seeing holes in limbs.

"This is an applied version of the healing fluid that our TRAM machines can create. Think of it like a Potion, but for humans." I tell the lupine, who nods as she and I already begin to see the grunt's flesh and sinew beginning to fuse back together, growing over the fractures of my blue attacks.

"Okay, that's that. Now, I'll need to see your wounded arm Leah." I tell the Lucario, who nods as she holds out her arm for me to see. I do notice that when I grab a hold of her arm, her face flushes a little redder. "Hmm, this shouldn't take long. Just sit tight for a sec, alright?" I tell her, the jackal nodding as I pull a Potion out of my Bag.

"Now, hold still. This'll sting, but only for a bit." I assure Leah, who lets me gently grip her arm and get to work. I spray the healing liquid onto her wound, seeing her wince at the sudden pain. However, the brave jackal holds on and toughs it out, while I work on getting the cut to heal quickly.

"And we're all done. Good as new." I speak up after a bit of spraying, shoving the empty Potion back into the confines of my bag. "Thank you, Jay." Leah nods thankfully in my direction, to which I chuckle as I pat her head. "No worries, Leah. Just try to be more aware next time, alright? Don't need ya hurting yourself." I grin, getting the Lucario to blush once more. "I understand, Jay." She replies as she looks at me, a little more flustered now.

"Alright, now hold on for just a minute, and let me concentrate..." I trail off, shutting both my eyes and envisioning the last Ranger base that we had seen in the last couple of days. More specifically, the empty holding cells for human prisoners that I had glanced at while we were passing by.

In a flash of blue light, the hunters quickly disappear. "Wait, what? Where'd they go?" Safia raises an eyebrow in confusion, to which I tap the side of my head. "I teleported them to the nearest Ranger Base from here. Rangers are people who protect the lives of Pokemon, so they'll know what to do with scum like that." I tell the Zoroark, before moving back to the willow tree.

"Now, let's get the bark of that tree and get back. That Deerling's fever isn't gonna cure itself, ya know." I remind the two of why we're even out here, before taking out my knife and starting to scrape away at some of the inner red bark of the tree.

"Wait, so what are we even doing with that tree bark stuff?" Safia asks me, peering in at what I'm doing. "Well, this bark contains stuff that can be consumed safely if I boil it for a bit. The water that comes from boiling the bark has some chemicals that helps deal with fevers, as well as swelling." I explain, finally cutting loose a small square of willow bark from the trunk.

"This should be enough. Now, let's head back, shall we? I really don't wanna get jumped out here, even though I've got you two protecting me." I suggest, walking off in the direction we came from as soon as I place the piece of tree bark in my pocket and sheathe my knife.

"Jay, I'm really sorry." Leah suddenly speaks up from behind me, getting me to stop walking mid stride and turn to see the source of the voice looking at me shamefully. "Sorry? For what?" I ask the Lucario, who averts her gaze as she lowers her head in guilt.

"I overreacted to what you did earlier, and I almost lashed out at you. I realized that I said some really means things to you, and I'm very sorry that I did. Please forgive me!" Leah replies, making me sigh as I boop her nose. "There's nothing you have to be sorry for, Leah." I assure the Lucario, who looks up at me.

"But Jay, I..." She starts, before I cut her off with a shake of my head. "Trust me, I get that I violated what you believed in. If anything I should be sorry, for not taking your ideals of chivalry into consideration like that." I tell the jackal, who smiles thankfully as she hears what I have to say.

"Now, we should hurry back. That fever isn't gonna cure itself, ya know." I remind the Lucario of why we're even out here, the jackal nodding quickly in response. "Oh, right! Lead the way, then. We'll defend you from any threats that appear." Leah assures me, her gaze now quite determined.

"I'll be counting on you then, Leah. Keep me safe, okay?" I chuckle at her bravery, petting her gently and causing her face to flush as she fidgets nervously. "Jay, don't say that. That's embarrassing..." The Lucario mumbles, her flushed expression making her quite the cute sight to behold.

"Seriously, sis. If you like the guy, just say it already! I don't get why you're not doing that already." Safia snickers, her teasing only serving to worsen the embarrassment suffered by the Aura Pokemon. "Safia!" Leah groans, before hiding her face in her paws as she walks along with us.

"Eh, you can fess up when you want to." I chuckle as I address Leah, making the Lucario yelp as her face heats up even more behind her paws. Seriously, any more blushing from her and I'll probably see her face burst into flames.

"That goes for you too, Safia." I cheekily grin at the Zoroark, who is caught off guard by my sudden flirt towards her. "Seriously? Even though you've seen my scars?" The lupine asks me with a wry grin, a light blush coloring her cheeks again as she looks at me in disbelief.

"Yeah. Like I said, I prefer you for you. Your scars don't counter what I like about you at all. In fact, it just makes you even more special to me." I tell Safia, who blushes as a look of surprise crosses her features for a moment, before it disappears and is replaced with a bashful smile.

"Eh, I'll think about it." The Zoroark replies dismissively as she averts her gaze, while Leah sounds off an embarrassed squeak as she quickly walks ahead of me. However, I see that Safia is smiling happily despite her flustered state. Damn it, she's so cute when she's all shy like this!

"Anyways, do ya mind telling me how you got those scars in the first place?" I ask the Zoroark, coughing afterwards as I try to fight the blush coloring my own cheeks upon seeing such a cute sight. My question seems to have a negative effect on Safia's mood, however.

"Why would you wanna know that?" She asks me, her smile having vanished completely. A frown is in place of that wonderful facial expression, her eyes showing me her own insecurity and suspicion of me. In response, I just shake my head to try and avoid the awkward confrontation I had just created.

"It's fine if you don't wanna talk about it. Hell, I don't exactly like talking about my scars, either. Sorry for bringing that up, Safia." I apologize to the now seemingly irritated Zoroark, before quickly looking the other way and whistling to myself in order avoid eye contact with the lupine again.

"Well, I suppose I could tell you. You did show me yours, after all. I feel like I owe you, with how I laughed at you earlier." Safia however, isn't avoiding the subject with a pissed look and some dismissive words this time around. She seems to actually be considering laying the details on me.

"Safia..." Leah looks to the lupine, seeing the reminiscence in her sister's eyes as she recalls what she had long hoped to forget. "It's okay, Leah. I don't mind if I'm just telling one other person about this." Safia replies as she gazes at the Lucario, before turning to me and taking a deep breath.

"Well, I was a normal Zorua living in seclusion just like everyone else. However, I had differing views than the rest of my pack. While my pack leader was busy enforcing looking after each other and keeping the pack as our top priority, I was busy trying to help other Pokemon outside our little community." Safia smiles, reminding herself of the good times.

"From the look on your face, those were some happy times." I smile, which gets the Zoroark to smirk at what I have to say. "Yeah, you're not wrong there." She replies, before her happy, almost infectious grin thins out, replaced with a somber look as we continue walking.

"As you could guess, that usually ended up with me on the pack leader's shit list most of the time. He really didn't like the idea of his pack members helping out other Pokemon that weren't Zoroark, so he gave me a hard time for it. But, my parents were around to bail me out." She continues, shaking her head.

"Now that I think about it, I did cause a hell of a lot of problems for my folks to fix. I was a real problem child, no doubt about it. Luckily, my parents loved me to death and were in good graces with the pack leader." Safia chuckles, probably now fully aware that her past self had caused some really bad scenarios and that her parents had to clean up after her.

"Well, I get where you're coming from. Hell, my dad got into serious trouble whenever I snuck into his lab." I laugh out loud, shaking my own head as I remind myself of all the childish issues I had raised while I was around with my dad. Even Leah giggles a little, watching us exchange hilarious life tidbits.

"But since the pack leader and I never got along, I ended up hating him more and more. So, I decided to fight the old coot for his spot as leader the second I evolved." Safia continues, her smile now completely disappeared as she sighs sadly. I can already guess how that choice turned out for her...

"God, that was such a stupid choice to make. I didn't even last two minutes against the guy before he sent my sorry ass flying." The lupine adds, proving my own suspicions about that part of her life. "Well, age does mean experience." I shrug, Safia letting loose a dry laugh as she hears me say that.

"If only past me knew that. Anyways, after I got beat, the old bastard originally wanted me killed. But due to some pleading from my parents' end, he let me off the hook. I was just gonna be banished after a night in a cage." Safia remarks, before her frown turns into an outright scowl.

"Safia?" Leah asks, her sudden anger making me quite worried as well. "Later that night though, I got a visit from the pack leader's son. He was a runt that had asked me out before, but I turned him down because I simply wasn't interested." She begins to talk again, letting on that this meeting wasn't exactly pleasant for her at the time.

"He wanted one last thing from me before I left, and I wasn't going to give it to him without a fight." The lupine continues, her anger bubbling up within her as she tells me this particular piece of her life. Leah's concern tells me that she also knows where this is going, and it isn't good.

"He tried to rape me that night. I tried to fight, but my hands and legs were tied with rope. He quickly held me down and he pulled his dick out. The little prick almost got away with it, too." Safia grits her teeth, her canines showing as she expresses her hate towards that particular Zoroark.

"But then, my dad stepped in to save me. Apparently, he got worried that I was uncomfortable during my stay, so he came over to check up on me. He saw what was going on, so he conked the guy out quick. I got kicked out the next day, but not before my parents gave me one last goodbye." Safia sniffs, tears brimming in her eyes as she reminds herself of what her last moments with the pack.

"I took up cutting myself as a hobby after I got kicked out. It helped me forget the pain I was feeling in here, ya know?" Safia adds, gesturing to her heart as she tells me why she has those scars in the first place. From the looks of those cuts when she parts her fur, she's been doing that for a while now.

"Safia, I'm so sorry to hear that." I sigh, wrapping my arms around her in a hug that I only hope can console her for a bit. In response, Safia returns the hug with a shaky smile as her arms reach behind my back and grab a hold of my shoulders. We stay like that for a bit, her warmth flooding into me.

"Thanks for that, Jay." The Zoroark seems to be at least a little comforted as we part, Leah crying openly as she hugs her sister tightly. "Come on, Leah. I'm pretty sure I've told you that story before, so quit crying alright?" Safia chuckles, her own tears resurfacing as she hugs the Lucario gently in return.

"Well, I hope that helped." I speak up, Safia releasing Leah from her hug and nodding. "Yeah. Thanks, Jay." Safia expresses her gratitude, which allows me to touch her face with a hand. "Jay? What's up?" Safia asks me as she's caught by surprise, blushing a bit as my thumb makes contact with her face.

"I'm just wiping those tears away. Can't have those staining your nice soft fur, now can we?" I tell her with a smile, the lupine smiling bashfully as she bats my hand away. "Jay, quit it." Safia giggles, although her blush and her smile tells me that she liked that at least a little.

"You too, Leah. Come here, now." I turn to address the Lucario, placing a hand to her cheeks and wiping away the tears streaming from her eyes. "Jay, thank you." Leah nods, before she looks away with a shameful expression. "I'm such a crybaby, shedding tears whenever something bad happens to anyone..." The jackal adds, to which I place a hand under her chin to lift her head up gently.

"That isn't called being a crybaby, Leah. That's proof that you're very caring and considerate of other people, and that's something about you that I never want to see change." I tell the ashamed Lucario, whose eyes go wide as a blush colors her cheeks.

"Do you mean it?" She asks me timidly, her confidence even less than usual as she fidgets a little while we maintain eye contact. "Yeah, I do. I wouldn't be telling you that otherwise." I nod firmly, smiling at the shy Lucario and making her blush even deeper as she gazes into my eyes.

"Playboy. Not even five seconds after flirting with me, you're going after another girl." I hear Safia sigh behind me, to which I see her crossing her arms as she accuses me. However, her expression hints towards her own envy and annoyance as she watches me tend to Leah.

"Aw, don't be like that. I meant what I said about how I like you, I swear." I tell the Zoroark, who smiles a little once she hears me say that. "You better mean that!" Safia warns me with a grin on her face, slugging me in the arm lightly as she tries to play off her embarrassment.

"Come on, Jay. We've got a Deerling to help out, remember?" The Zoroark speaks up to change the subject, jerking a claw back towards the campsite. "Alright, I hear ya." I sigh, the lupine grinning at me as she takes off. Seriously, she's agile for someone that has a mane of that size dangling behind her!

"Aw, come on! I can't run that fast!" I groan, smirking as I watch Safia dash off into the trees. "Safia! Wait for us, please!" Leah shouts after her sister, quickly sprinting off into the woods as she tries to follow the Zoroark to the best of her ability. However, she's making sure that she doesn't lose me in the foliage as well with her slower sprint.

"Go on ahead, Leah. I'll catch up in a bit." I call out to the jackal ahead of me, who looks back with a worried expression. "Are you sure?" She asks me, getting me to grin at her when she asks. "I promise I will. Now, catch up to Safia for me, will ya?" I chuckle, Leah quickly taking off after Safia once she has my word.

"Okay, one more time." I mutter to myself, channeling more magic into my body. Feeling the wind in my face, the trees whiz by me faster and faster as I pick up speed. Now, hopefully I didn't end up too far behind those two...

 **Author's Note: Heya all. Roccer here, with a new update! I'm on my way to college, and there have been a couple of problems here and there. I'm in the middle of smoothing those out, so the next chapter might not come out on time. I hope all of you understand, and have a good rest of your day.**

 **Your go-to lazybones,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	79. Break Chapter!

Chapter 78

[Jay]

 **UPDATE!**

Heya, it's Jay here. Roccer's feeling under the weather right now, and he's got two midterms piling up. So, he's asked me ta give you guys the news. He's back on track, the crazy madman. He's back to writing, and he's writing up a brainstorm, heh. Expect some revised content, and a lemon soon. He's already halfway done with the chapter itself, and trust me when I say this: I'm boning her real good in this one. Not who I expected to get with this early on, though.

 **Jay, what the hell are you doing in here!**

Oh, hey boss man. Thought you hit the sack. What's up?

 **What's up is that you're addressing the readers without me! Dude, come on!**

Alright, it won't happen again. Jeez, you're so freaking overbearing.

 **And you're so whiny! First the hero thing, now you're whining about who you're dicking? Let me remind you that YOU'RE the guy getting all that Poke pussy, not me.**

Okay, I get your point. I'll be leaving now, so you can get back to resting up after you check that I didn't screw anything up too badly.

 **Yeah, yeah. Later, ya lazy butthole.**

Take care of yourself more, okay Dad? See ya.

 **Later, dude. (Hears door slam behind him) Dad? Huh, well I kinda am his creator. That makes sense, right?**

 **Eh, anyways...**

 **Poll's off, everyone. Sorry to end it this early, but I wanted to ask all of you a question. Who's your favorite girl? I'd really like to know, just for personal reasons. Anyways, have a good week, and I shall probably be posting again by next week.**

 **Oh, and sorry to all of you guys who thought it was a chapter, lol. Catch ya later!**

 **...Wait, what the fuck!? JAY! DID YOU DELETE ALL MY PROGRESS ON MONSTER HUNTER WORLD!?**

Uh, you mean the game with the giant monster bosses in it? Yeah, I totally did. Sucker.

 **You stupid fucking piece of shit! I'll fucking delete you! Oh, you're still here? Sorry, guys. I need to deal with my little shit of a son for now, so later!**

 **Roccer**


	80. Chapter 78

Chapter 78

[Jay]

"Alright, should slow down a bit now." I remind myself, having already run past a few familiar looking trees and bushes just now. That, and because of the footprints that the three of us made during our walk to find the willow tree. However, I didn't account for something lining the ground in front of me.

"Woah shi-" I scream when my foot gets caught in the root, my arms flailing around as I try to stop the impact of my face into the grimy, unforgiving ground. However, my efforts are for naught, as I end up planting the front of my head into the dirt.

"God fucking damn it!" I groan, my curse muffled by the ground that I can taste in my mouth. Using my hands to lift my upper body off the ground, I spit a few times to get the taste of grassy soil and rocks out of my mouth. I roll my eyes when I look down, seeing that my hoodie isn't any better off than my face is.

"Geez, that tasted bad..." I spit again, making sure that no stray bits of grass stay in my mouth after my make out session with the surprisingly warm and nasty earth. Trying to rid my hoodie of the dust it had gathered during my moment of carelessness, I manage to brush most of it off my clothing.

"Okay, no more enhanced running for now." I sigh, before I look around to find where the footprints I just saw went. Luckily for me, I didn't smudge too many of the imprints with my fall so I can still see where the three of us came from. So, I should be able to find my way back by following them.

"Where is the idiot, anyways?" I hear Alita's slightly annoyed tone coming from the hole in the foliage up ahead, which means that I'm surprisingly close to where I want to be. Approaching the clearing, I see that everyone present is busy looking at the two recent arrivals to the group before me.

"He said that he would catch up to us, so he shouldn't be that far behind." Leah tells the Unfezant, which gets Chell to cross her arms as she frowns at the two. "I thought you said you were going to protect him!" The Dewott huffs, making Safia chuckle nervously as Leah crosses her arms.

"I also recall you saying that." Nesia adds, staring at the two with her usual expression. However, I can tell from her gaze that she isn't all that happy about them basically dumping me behind. Nova doesn't seem too happy either, her expression showing her displeasure towards the two.

"As I remember, you said that keeping an eye on him wouldn't be that hard." The Fire Moth repeats what Safia had said, causing Leah to break out into a nervous sweat. Both Safia and Leah wither under the piercing gazes, while Katrina simply giggles as she watches this unfold.

"Uh, yeah! I wonder where he went, right Leah?" The Zoroark grins as she attempts to shift the blame somewhere else, while trying to ignore Leah glaring daggers into her back. "I would be with him right now, if someone hadn't decided to run off." The Lucario replies, placing Safia in some deep shit with the pissed Dewott and Servine.

"I'm right here, guys." I speak up, getting everyone's attention. "Hiya, Mister Jay!" Chell grins, waving at me as her anger just seems to vanish into thin air as soon as I show up. "Hello, Husband." Nesia nods my way, a smile on her face once I enter her field of vision.

"Welcome back, Jay." Nova smiles, her aura of anger dissipating almost immediately and causing Leah to breathe a sigh of relief. "Jay, you're back! Got what ya need?" Jack greets me, his voice still exuding concern for the suffering Deerling.

"Yeah, I did. How are those cuts coming along?" I ask the other Trainer, who smiles as he tosses me the tube of ointment. "That stuff worked wonders! Seriously, they're closing up and disappearing already!" Jack grins, getting me to give him a thumbs up in return. Well, there's some good news.

"You have arrived just in time, Jay. Had you walked in a bit later, there might not have been much of Safia and Leah remaining to speak of." The Liepard is the last to greet me, which gets me to chuckle as I recall what was going on before I made myself known.

"I could tell." I reply, smiling as Chell and Nesia approach me and hug my legs affectionately. Jack hasn't left the Deerling's side, as he's still checking up on it every five seconds, looking away only to take a bite out of a sandwich he had procured out of nowhere.

"Hold up, you two. Let me do something first." I chuckle, gently using my hands to pry the two clingy starter Pokemon away from my legs. "Okay..." Chell frowns, before Nesia taps her friend on the shoulder and gestures to the Deerling once she has the Dewott's attention.

"Oh! Sorry, I forgot!" Chell giggles in slight embarrassment, rubbing the back of her head with a paw. Once both Pokemon have relinquished possession of my limbs, I am free to move over to the fire we had set up. Placing a pit atop the charred wood, I pour half a bottle of water into the pot.

"Nova, a little help with the fire please?" I call out to the Volcarona, who nods as she flies over to me and breathes some fire onto the sticks and branches. Placing more of the spare wood that I had lying around, I place the chunk of willow bark into the pot and simply wait for the stuff to boil up.

"And now, we wait." I nod to myself, sitting down and watching the pot heat up. In the meantime, I decide to walk over and check up on the Deerling. "How's the fever?" I ask Jack, the pudgy Trainer shaking his head with a somber look on his face.

"It's not getting worse, but it isn't getting any better, either." Jack sighs, which gets my brow to furrow as I stare down at the small Season Pokemon. The Deerling currently has a cold and damp towel on it's forehead, courtesy of Jack. That should help with it's burning forehead a little, at least.

"Well, lucky you found it when you did. Otherwise, things would have been much worse." I smile, trying to cheer the sad guy up by pointing out the silver lining of the situation. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Jack grins in return, a little less sorrowful than he was earlier.

"Oh, yeah. Did you guys have breakfast yet?" I ask the guy, to which he nods. "Yeah! I had Ty and Slowbro look for food while you guys were away, and I fed your team too!" Jack grins happily, which gets me to look around to see if any of the food he mentioned was left.

"We were gettin' mighty hungry back here, an' he was kind enough ta share." Cleo affirms his words, which gets Belladonna to nod from her spot next to the Flaafy. "Yeah, we kinda did chow down without you." The Venipede admits, Dani nodding to confirm that statement.

"Yeah. Sorry, Jay." The Cottonee adds, which gets me to frown in faked sadness. "Aw, man. You ate without me?" I sniff, getting Taylor to huff at my words. "Don't blame us, you ass! We were really fucking hungry!" The Sewaddle yells at me indignantly, which gets Lily to panic as she hears me whine about such a trivial matter.

"I'm so sorry, Sir! I didn't mean to!" Lily yelps, getting me to pat both small Pokemon on the head with a chuckle. "I know, I know. That was a joke, so don't take it too seriously." I assure the Bug Type and the Grass Type, the former blushing a little as she tries to bat my hands away with her leafy head.

"Whatever. I knew that." Taylor groans, while Lily blushes a deep red under the comforting touch of my hand on her leaves. The Petilil doesn't say much, as she averts her gaze from mine. However, her small smile as she accepts my gesture implies that she's okay with me doing this.

"God, you can be such a dumbass sometimes." Belladonna sighs in exasperation, shaking her head as I grin her way. "Hey, don't let that bug ya too much. I gotta have some laughs of my own every now and then." I chuckle, Alita glaring at me from her resting spot when I spout the pun.

"God damn it! You just had to say that, didn't you!?" The Unfezant groans, while Taylor attempts to shoot her silk at my mouth. However, I simply move my head to the right and avoid the attempt to mute me. "Hold still, you ass!" Taylor growls in annoyance, which makes me shake my head.

"Nah. Why don't you just make like a tree and leaf?" I grin cheekily, which gets the Sewaddle to groan herself this time. "That's it! You're gonna get it now!" The little Bug Type yells, shooting more silk at me. I don't attempt to dodge this time, just using my hand to catch the sticky string.

"Yeesh, calm down. It was just a joke. Please don't shoot string at me." I try to reason with the Sewaddle, who sighs in annoyance once she hears my pleas for a ceasefire. "Alright, fine. I guess I didn't really want to do that anyways." Taylor replies as she backs down, albeit a little reluctantly.

"Mister Jay!" I hear Chell call out to me, making me turn around to address the Dewott. "Yeah, kid? What's up?" I ask, to which she approaches me with a look of want. "You promised I could play some games after lunch, remember?" She reminds me, getting me to nod in realization.

"Yup, I sure did. Wait a sec, okay?" I tell the Dewott, who nods with a happy grin as she sits down next to me. Pulling my computer out of my backpack, I switch the device on and type in a code on the browser to transfer my data onto the computer.

"What's that thingy on the screen, Mister Jay? It's filling up with green stuff!" Chell points out, using her paw to point to the loading bar. "That's a loading screen, Chell. It shows me how much of the stuff I want to download has been received by the computer." I tell her, Chell cocking her head in confusion.

"Download?" She asks, to which Nesia slithers over to us and taps Chell on the shoulder. "It means that Master is putting more things on his computer." Nesia informs her friend, who smiles widely. "Oh, I get it! Thanks, Ness!" Chell thanks her friend for imparting the information, making me chuckle.

"There, it's done loading now." I speak up, turning the device screen over to Chell and Nesia after a little bit of clicking. "Ragey Birdies?" Chell reads the text on the title screen, getting me to point to the start button. "This game is about birds attacking pigs because they stole their eggs." I explain, Chell frowning at the part about stealing eggs.

"Come on, Ness! Let's help the birds get their eggs back!" The Dewott declares, Nesia nodding along with her friend's suggestion. "Okay." The Servine nods, before they boot up a new game. "Oh, no! The pigs are gonna eat those eggs!" Chell gasps in horror, her reaction getting me to chuckle before I hear my stomach growling.

"So, any food left for us?" I ask Jack, who nods as he points to another pot that was lying next to the fire. "Yeah! Help yourselves!" He tells me, which gets me to smile thankfully at the guy. "Thanks, dude." I thank the other Trainer, before quickly moving over to check the pot.

Sure enough, there's a nice little assortment of meat and Berries in the pot. "Mmm, that smells good! What's cooking?" Safia, who's probably as hungry as I am, quickly rushes over to gaze into the contents of the container. Leah also approaches us, both bipedal Pokemon licking their chops at the contents within.

"I call dibs!" Safia cheers, before taking a large piece of meat and chomping into it right quick. Leah takes a handful of berries into her paws, and begins to pop them into her mouth one by one. As for me, I take a little of both and begin eating myself.

"Mmm, this ain't half bad." I comment, munching away at the meat while adding a berry to each bite. The berries are raw, but they compliment the taste of the meat so well. From what I'm tasting, this is venison I'm chewing on. It's nice and juicy too, with just the right amount of seasoning.

"I'll say! This tastes great!" Safia gushes over the brilliance of cooked food as usual, which get a chuckle out of me and a giggle out of Leah. "I assume you made this, then?" I turn to Jack, who's smiling pretty widely once he hears what I have to say about the food.

"Yeah! Ty helped me find the deer to make it!" He grins, patting his large reptilian Pokemon on the back. In response, the Tyranitar simply grins at his Trainer. "He may be good now, but I can't tell you how bad his first try was. It looked more like charcoal!" The Rock and Dark Type guffaws, making Jack frown as he slugs Ty in the arm.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, bro." Jack sighs, although his happy and playful grin indicates that this has been a mutually friendly dynamic that has been going on for some time now. "You've been with him for a while now, haven't you?" I look over to Ty, who nods as he addresses me.

"Yeah! Through thick and thin, I've always stood by his side." The Tyranitar chuckles, Jack nodding to affirm what his partner had said. "He's right there. He was my first Pokemon, after all." Jack adds, to which I nod in light of the revelation. These two sure go way back, huh?

"Take that, evil pigs!" Chell suddenly cheers in victory, to which I turn around to see Nesia with her hand on the mouse pad. She got three stars on that level, which is quite impressive considering it's her first time playing. "Woah, you're so good at this!" Chell grins at the Servine, who smiles in light of the praise.

"Of course." Nesia replies with an air of confidence, making me roll my eyes and shake my head. At least they're having fun with what I gave them. That game is kinda for kids to figure out, so that would explain why Ness is getting so many three stars on those levels.

Just then, I decide to check my phone for the time. Sure enough, enough time has passed for the bark to finish boiling. "Hold up, let me do something real quick." I speak up, reaching for the pot I had left to boil. I lift the container off the fire, before using a fork to quickly scoop out the piece of bark.

"Something smells weird." Safia comments, crinkling her nose at the admittedly odd smell of the tea that I had made. "Yeah, but it'll help with that fever the Deerling's struggling with." I tell her, straining off the liquid into a jar with a sieve. Glad I thought of bringing those along for the ride, huh?

"It smells nice." Lily speaks up, giving the air around her a good sniff. Seems like she's pretty used to the smell of natural herbs and stuff, eh? "Eh, it smells fine." Dani adds, the Cottonee more or less unfazed by the herbal smell of the willow bark tea.

"That's it? That's the stuff that'll help?" Jack asks me, eyeing the sedimentation in the sieve. "No, Jack. It's this stuff." I sigh, holding up the jar of dark brown liquid in his face. "Oh. Okay, then let's give it to the Deerling then!" The Trainer replies, his enthusiasm undeterred as he eyes the tea in the jar.

"Hold on, and let me get a spoon." I tell him, reaching into my bag for a ceramic soup spoon. As soon as I pull the spoon out of the bag however, it's immediately snatched away by the other person with us right now. Seriously, he could have just waited for me to finish.

"Wait 'till it's cold before you spoon feed it, you dumbass! You'll burn it's mouth!" I yell, seeing Jack having taken the jar of still hot liquid when I wasn't noticing. Good job I did notice, 'cause the moron was just about to spoon feed the Deerling himself.

"Jay, I think you're forgetting something important." Leah speaks up, having reached for another handful of berries as she tries to remind me. "Something important?" I repeat what she had said, raising an eyebrow before I suddenly realize what she's implying.

"Crap, you're right! I totally forgot!" I exclaim, before I groan at my own stupidity. "What's important?" Jack asks me, to which I gesture to the Deerling that's still wrapped up in Jack's sleeping bag. The Season Pokemon is asleep, it's chest steadily rising and falling as it snoozes.

"We were ambushed when we found the willow tree. Turns out, by the same hunters that were responsible for the Sawsbuck murder I mentioned yesterday." I tell everyone present, Jack's facial expression growing angry when he hears what I have to say.

"Oh, no! Are you alright, Jay?" Nova gasps, immediately concerned for me when she hears that hunters had assaulted us. She's probably had some bad run ins with people like that before, so it's understandable. "Please tell me you kicked their asses." Taylor interjects, listening in to our conversation with an angry glare on her face.

"What happened? You weren't hurt, right?" Jack asks, getting me to smirk his way in response. No worries, dude. I dumped them off at the nearest Ranger Base. They had a couple of cells that were free, so I offered to fill 'em up." I chuckle, Jack smiling in relief once he hears that I had taken care of it.

"That's good to hear." The chubby Trainer grins, while Nova quickly floats over to check me for any signs of injury. "You're not hurt too badly, are you Sir?" Lily asks me, her expression quite concerned as she joins Nova in checking me for injuries. However, a pat to their heads quickly calms them down.

"Don't worry, you two. I'll be perfectly fine." I assure the two Pokemon, both the Volcarona and the Petilil quickly lighting up. "Okay. That's good to hear!" Lily nods, heaving a sigh of relief as Nova nods in agreement. Both Pokemon are also blushing as they receive my gesture, which makes me chuckle.

"But one of them revealed some really interesting information. They were hired by this crime syndicate called Team Rocket. Ring any bells?" I ask Jack, whose facial expression immediately becomes unreadable when he hears what I have to say. Ty and the Venusaur look quite mad at those words, both Pokemon showing anger I hadn't though was possible from either of them.

"What's Team Rocket?"Nesia asks me, while the rest of my team also raises an eyebrow in confusion. When I hear her ask that, I sigh and prepare for a long explanation. However, it's Jack that recovers sooner and beats me to it.

"They're a group that only concerns themselves with making a profit from capturing and enslaving Pokemon, or for their own amusement. From killing Pokemon for body parts to inhumane experiments, there's no limit to what those bastards have done. If something bad can be done to a Pokemon, chances are they've already done that." Jack explains, a look of anger etched onto his face.

"Those sick bastards!" Alita yells angrily, a glare already having flared out on her face. "They do that to Pokemon!? That's so fucking sick!" Taylor shouts aloud, her anger also quite apparent while Belladonna nods in agreement. "Bunch of assholes." She concludes, which gets me to nod. Seriously, she hit the nail right on the head there.

"God, that's seriously messed up." Safia growls, which gets a nod from Cleo. "Ah'll say. Ah've only known them fer a minute, an' Ah already hate the sound of 'em." The Flaafy adds, gritting her teeth in anger as she takes in the information.

"That sounds horrible! Why would they do that?" Lily gasps, Dani sighing as she places a leaf around the form of the Petilil. "Yeah, but that's just how most humans are." She replies, while Nova and Leah's expressions darken as soon as they hear that Team Rocket is no stranger to enslaving Pokemon.

"This Team Rocket sounds utterly despicable." Katrina comments, accentuating her hatred with a hiss. "You said it, Kat!" Chell nods, already angry at the mention of such unacceptable behavior. "Agreed." Nesia adds, her monotonous expression having been replaced by a glare of her own.

"So, they had to meet up with Team Rocket to get their payment. At least, that's what I got from the hunters." I finish, which gets Jack to nod and stand up, both hands curled into fists and at his sides. "I'm gonna go find their base and kick their asses." He speaks up, which gets me to raise an eyebrow.

"I mean sure, if that's what you really wanna do." I shrug, Ty looking my way with a serious gaze. "We had some close calls with those guys before, and it never ended well for us. We're just going to return the favor." The large reptile growls, the Venusaur nodding and getting up to follow Jack.

"Wait for me, guys." The Slowbro says, once again dragging out each syllable of his sentence. However, he seems quite pumped up to settle this business with Team Rocket. "Alright, I'll just wait here." I nod to the Trainer, making Alita look my way in surprise.

"Wait, what!? Aren't we gonna help him out?" The Unfezant asks me, her tone quite disbelieving of what she had heard me say. "Yeah! We should help 'em fuck those Team Rocket assholes up!" Taylor agrees with the hot headed Flying Type, which gets some of the team to stare at me in confusion.

"No, we're not." I reply simply, getting Alita to growl at me in frustration. "The hell is wrong with you, you idiot!?" Alita yells at me this time, getting quite impatient about the whole thing. "Yeah! Don't be fucking stupid, you ass!" Taylor adds, the Sewaddle seemingly quite upset that I hadn't decided to take action against Team Rocket.

"I'm not being stupid, Taylor. I have my own reasons for this, ya know." I sigh, a little annoyed and saddened at how the Sewaddle is simply ignoring what I've been through. That, or she simply hasn't remembered the conversation about my past that we had this morning.

"Mister Jay..." Chell trails off as she looks at me, seeming quite conflicted due to what I'm saying. Leah and Lily both seem to be quite confused at my choice of the matter as well. The rest of the team however, quickly catch on and seem to understand what I'm getting at here.

"You're such a coward." Jack growls all of a sudden, getting me to shrug as I turn to him. "Well, call me what you want. With people like the Rangers around, I don't need risk my own life and the lives of my team to help others. Nor do I want to." I remind Jack of the existence of people that fight for justice, which gets his expression to grow even darker.

"I thought you were really a guy that cared about Pokemon, Jay. Guess I was wrong." Jack grits his teeth, his anger already showing in spades as he clenches his own fists. "I do, Jack. But, I'm not that dumb to throw myself into the line of fire like that." I reply simply, which only seems to rile up the guy even more. Finally, he roars in frustrated anger as he points an accusatory finger at me.

"No, you're just being selfish! You're just going to save your own skin, while you let other innocent Pokemon suffer for it!" Jack yells angrily at me, his expression one of livid rage and disgust. "Well, no. The Rangers can deal with Team Rocket for us, ya know. We just need to give 'em the information." I sigh as I try to get Jack to see what I mean. However, my points just fall on deaf ears.

"The Rangers can't do shit! They've been on Giovanni's tail for years now, and they can't even put a dent in his larger plans! All they've been doing is picking up the pieces of what those bastards ruined! Do you have any idea how elusive they are with their legal loopholes, not to mention how secretive they are!?" Jack shouts at me, making me sigh in irritation as I simply stare his anger in the eye.

"Yes, as a matter of a fact. I probably know more than you do about it, given my run-ins with 'em." I tell the chubby Trainer, whose eyes widen as he learns this little tidbit about me. However, this information just serves to bolster his own anger even further.

"Then why won't you help me take 'em down!? You claim to know this, but you're still acting like a coward and hiding behind your own words!" The other human shouts, which makes me shake my head as I hear him out. He's pretty determined to make me see his own reasoning, at least.

"Listen, dude. You might think you can handle Team Rocket on your own, but you have no idea what their numbers are. They've got guns, UMP inhibitors and experimental weaponry everywhere. You're taking one hell of a risk here, ya know." I begin, while Jack just stands there, his expression unreadable as he looks down.

"These guys are serious business. You don't know what they can do to people like you and me. Not to mention, all the things they'll do to your team if you guys fail and get caught. You're putting the Pokemon who trust you the most in serious danger, just because you wanna be the hero? And I thought you cared about your Pokemon, Jack." I sigh, to which Jack finally has had enough.

"That's it! If I can't make you see what I mean, I'll just have to punch it into you!" He yells, before Ty stops his Trainer with a hand. "Let it go, Jack. He's just trying to rile you up. He's not worth getting angry over, friend." Ty grunts, his whole attitude towards me and the team having already changed for the worse as he glares at me. The Slowbro and Mimikyu seem quite saddened, but they move on.

"We shouldn't waste time on these fools. If they won't help, then so be it." Venusaur adds, already lumbering away and out of sight. "Fine." Jack huffs, already turning to leave with him and his team in tow. "Good. I dunno about you, but I'm not wasting any more time dealing with a hypocrite who claims that he cares bout his team." I throw one last insult his way, stopping Jack in his tracks.

"And you're tho one who cares about Pokemon, Jay? I'm not the one only looking after his own." Jack spits with distaste, as if the very mention of me and my ideals left a sour taste in his mouth. However, he quickly resumes his trek to find the Team Rocket base and leaves me and my team behind.

As soon as he's out of sight, I sigh as I pinch the bridge of my nose. "God, what a dumbass." I groan, before I inwardly sigh. I hate it when people hate me, as I'm usually a guy who feels comfortable knowing I made a friend rather than an enemy. But, some people just can't be reasoned with.

"Jay, what the hell was that!?" Alita shouts at me, her rage apparently not having dissipated just yet. Taylor is also pretty pissed as well, judging by her now recent attempt to shoot silk at my face. For the sake of letting her vent some of her frustrations so that she'll listen to me, I let her do so.

"Listen to me, Alita. You too, Taylor." I speak up, turning to face the team as Taylor finishes up her incessant silk shooting spree. "The thing is, I really didn't want to risk fighting Team Rocket." I tell everyone present, Chell and Leah still not getting what I mean as confusion forms on their faces.

"What do you mean by that, Mister Jay? We fought Team Rocket last time, right?" Chell asks me, still utterly in the dark about my own view point on the matter. "Chell has a point, Jay. We did battle with Team Rocket the last time, and we did win in the end." The Lucario frowns, making me groan.

"Last time, everything ended up fine. I made a choice to go into that underground battle arena to save the Scolipede they had kept there. What I didn't expect was to run into Team Rocket there." I begin, Taylor interrupting as soon as I had mentioned those bastards.

"So what? They were there, but we got out just fine last time! You've even got me and Bella to help out this time, you ass!" The Sewaddle retorts cockily, making me growl as I face palm at her gross oversimplification of what had happened that day. She just doesn't get it, huh?

"Husband has a point. He means that things may not go our way again." Nesia says as she tries to get the Sewaddle see reason, only for the Bug Type to lash out angrily at the Servine. "Shut up, snake! You're too in love with this ass to even think about going against him!" Taylor yells, getting Nesia to glare heatedly at the Bug Type.

"No, that's not the point here." I raise my voice a little, suppressing my own anger as I face the Sewaddle again. "The point is, I had a plan going into the last one. The plan was save the Scolipede, and get out. All of you should know how royally fucked that situation was before Aiden showed up." I explain, before looking to everyone around me.

"But can't you just make another plan for this time, Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, the Dewott still quite unsure of what I'm trying to say. In response to her suggestion, I shake my head. "The thing is, my plan failed. Miserably. Clearly, I'm not fit to lead an assault of any kind on a shabby base like that, much less a Team Rocket hideout. Those are on a different level." I continue, leaving Chell silent.

"Listen, it's not that I don't want to put a stop to Team Rocket. Believe me, I do. But we only stand a fighting chance if you girls have your powers. If not, then we're just sitting ducks just waiting to be caught." I tell everyone around me, even Taylor and Alita losing their glares as they hear me out.

"Do you know why we won last time? We won because we got lucky, not because of any of us. If Aiden hadn't shown up at the time, we would have been screwed. On top of that, we got our asses kicked because those assholes had UMP inhibitors that could nullify your powers." I add, as Chell and Leah quickly catch on to what I'm trying to say.

"With your powers, I have no doubt in my mind that all of you could kick some serious human ass. But without them, and against guys with guns? You don't stand a snowball's chance in hell. Jack thinks he does, but that doesn't mean shit. Enough bullets can bring down even the toughest of Pokemon, even under normal conditions." I finish, seeing Leah and Chell look down guiltily.

"So, you think you can bring 'em down? Be my guest. But, would you still go knowing the risks? Would you still go, knowing that you could get caught and used for god knows what, and I'd never be able to see you again, much less save you? Would you?" I ask the Pokemon around me, Chell finally willing to look up at me with teary eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Mister Jay! I didn't even think about any of those things!" The Dewott wails, Leah gritting her teeth as she too cries a few tears of guilt. "Jay, I am sorry for even entertaining the thought of going after Jack. All this time I've been trying to protect you, disregarding the very person I swore to keep safe when it mattered most..." The Lucario chokes, apologizing profusely.

In response, I can't help but let my expression of frustration soften as I kneel down and bring the two into a hug. "It's alright, you two. I don't expect you to understand what I mean right away, but I swear that everything I do is for the betterment of the team. I'd never throw any of you in harm's way, nor will I ever resort to that." I assure them, as I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Jay, I'm sorry. For not thinking about what you said." I turn to see the Unfezant apologize, the Flying Type tearing up as her guilt prevents her from even looking at my face whilst she says so. Taylor says nothing, but the tears pricking at the corners of her eyes shows me all that I need to know.

"Come here, you two." I smile, wrapping the two other guilty Pokemon into the group hug as well. Their forms shake as they sob into my arms, not willing to let go as they grasp onto me with their various appendages. In response to their shed tears, I gently whisper sweet nothings into their ears to calm them down.

"I'm so sorry, Mister Jay." Chell whispers once her sobbing has died down, while Leah plants her muzzle into the soft fabric of my hoodie. "Please forgive me, Jay. Please..." The Jackal sniffs, getting me to pat their heads at their words. Alita and Taylor seem to have calmed down as well.

"If anything, I should be asking all of you to forgive me. I made all of you just charge headlong into danger like that with me, and you all suffered for it. I'm so sorry, everyone." I chuckle, tears running down my cheeks as I smile in realization of how poorly my last rescue attempt had went. Or worse, how it could have went.

"It's okay, Husband." Nesia comforts me, hugging me with her small arms as she presses her face against my back. "Are you kidding? Of course we forgive ya, you moron!" Safia grins, latching onto my back and wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

"But of course, Jay. As you have told us before, everyone makes mistakes. We do not expect our loving Master to be any other way." Katrina smiles in assurance, the feline nuzzling her body against my leg as she says so. "Don't ya worry about it, Jay. Screw up or no, yer always gonna be our Trainer." Cleo chuckles, the Flaafy pressing her wool up against the lower side of my back as she hugs me.

"Yeah, you dumbass. There's no way we'd ever leave you behind." Belladonna assures me, the Venipede crawling up my other leg. "Yeah, Jay. You're not getting rid of us that easy. You've done too much for all of us." Dani chuckles, using her leaves to hold onto my head.

"We'll be with you all the way, Sir! If you'll have us, that is." Lily smiles happily at me, her timidity doing nothing to stop her from conveying her true feelings towards our partnership. "We will always stand by your side, Jay. None of us could ever forget what you've done for us." Nova smiles warmly, her heat as she folds her wings around us making that warmth much more palpable.

"Thanks, everyone. Damn it, you're making me cry over here..." I laugh, tears of happiness and comfort flowing from my eyes and getting giggles out of everyone present. Warning the rangers can wait. Right now, I'll savor this warm feeling of belonging with my team...

 **Guess who's back, baby! Roccer's in the house!**

Hey, don't forget me.

 **Right... And yeah, I guess Jay is also here. Asshole.**

Come on, you're not still pissed about the whole Monster Hunter thing, right?

 **I had the sexiest pair of claws known to man! Hell, even Wolverine would have wanted a piece! And my little kitten helper was so damn cute, too! You ruined it all, you lazy piece of shit!**

...Okay, and I'm getting outta here now. Later, dude.

 **Eh. Truth is, I'm not that mad at the guy anymore. In fact, I have a couple of surprises for him.**

Aw, a surprise for me? You shouldn't have, dad.

 **And YOU shouldn't eavesdrop! I'm cutting you off from all your ketchup AND soda privileges for the next two weeks!**

Wait, what!? You monster!

 **Yes, Jay! That was the surprise! Suck it, bitch!**

You bastard! Not the ketchup! Nooooooooo!

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this one. I'll see all of you again next week, after my two midterms! I'm so fucked, man...**

 **Yours always,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	81. Chapter 79

Chapter 79

[Jay]

"Ah, this afternoon sun feels so good!" Dani sighs blissfully as she floats up a little higher, savoring the nice sunlight as she makes full use of her light weight and the soothing sunlight shining down onto us as we walk down the path that leads to the Ranger Base. For safekeeping purposes, the Deerling has been temporarily relocated to the AVR on my person.

"I could not agree more, Dani. This sunlight is so positively divine. I simply cannot help but feel the urge to curl up and take a nice, long nap." Katrina comments, the Liepard looking quite satisfied as she catches the sun's rays. Guess even Pokemon felines aren't immune to the effects of the sun's warmth, huh? In response, Chell smiles happily as she enjoys herself as well.

"You're right about that! The sun is so nice out today!" The Dewott giggles, her light blue fur only made more vibrant by the sun's rays. "The sun is nice." Nesia agrees with Chell, the Servine not even hanging out in the nearby trees for once as she is simply content to bask in the light. Well it is going to be Summer around her quite soon, so the extra sun is to be expected.

"Well, can't argue with that. It's just the right amount of warm out today." I nod, feeling the rays of light on my face and hands. Meanwhile, Lily frowns as she jumps futilely from her spot on the ground. She can't really seem to bathe in the warm rays from there. "Sir? I'm very sorry for asking, but could you please help me get up a little higher?" The Petilil asks me, to which I smile and gently pick her up.

"Sure thing, Lily. Up ya get!" I chuckle gently raising the little Grass Type up to my shoulder, where she gets off and sounds off a sigh of bliss. "Mm, that feels so good! Thank you, Sir!" Lily thanks me, her smile really warming my heart as I smile in return.

"Heh, no worries. We're a team now, and teammates look after one another. No need to feel sorry for asking, alright? I'll do whatever I can to help out, no matter what." I assure the Petilil, who blushes as she nods shyly in light of my words. "O-okay, Sir." She tells me, her smile turning a little flustered as she hears me out.

"Just keep an eye on Dani for me, make sure she doesn't fly off too far." I chuckle, gesturing to the floating Cottonee that's slightly higher than the level of my head. "Thanks, but no thanks. I think I can handle myself, Jay." Dani grins wryly, before a sudden large gust of wind suddenly blows her way.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Dani yelps, the gust having thrown the Grass Type off guard. Not that she would have been prepared for it either way, as Cottonee are relatively lightweight. As such, I make sure to reach out and use my hand to grab her. As soon as the breeze passes I turn to smirk at Dani, who's breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, but it never hurts to be prepared. Losing you is the last thing I wanna do right now. Can't get stronger if ya get lost in here, right?" I chuckle, Dani's face flushing as she remains in my hand for a while longer before taking to the air again. "Okay, I get it. Thanks for the save, Jay." Dani nods my way, a small smile lining her face as she takes to floating closer to me.

"So, where's the nearest Ranger base Mister Jay?" Chell asks me as she turns to look at me, the team and I having been quite happy since we made nice with each other. And no, not in the sexual way. As much as I would have liked that to happen, I promised Chell and Nesia that I'd come onto them when and if they felt like it.

"Well, the map says it's a good distance from here. The way I see it, we'll have to nap in the forest for one more night before we get there." I tell the energetic Dewott, who smiles as she walks in front of me and observes the surrounding forest with a sparkle in her eyes. Even after evolving, she hasn't changed much at all. She's just as cute as she was before which is not good for my heart, damn it!

"Husband, you're staring." Nesia informs me, getting me splutter as I turn to the Servine as I take her comment the wrong way. "Jeez, Ness. Could ya not phrase it like that, please? Makes me look like a perv." I grin wryly, the Grass Type getting a knowing smirk for a second.

"What do you mean, Husband?" Nesia's look vanishes as soon as it formed, making me sigh as I pat the Servine's head in defeat. "You win this time, Ness." I speak in an exaggerated tone, to which Nesia giggles. I got played by my own Pokemon, man. She played me real good. In light of me getting my proverbial ass handed to me, Katrina giggles as she approaches me from the side.

"Jay you do not have to stare at Chell. If you wish to act instead of gawk, then all you have to do is request of me one simple thing." The feline grins cheekily, rubbing her tail dangerously close to my crotch and getting me to shudder. That cheeky Liepard's gonna be the death of me, I swear. In response, I stop her tail with a quick grab of my hand before it escalates.

"Jeez, why so forward today Kat?" I chuckle as I address the feline, who huffs as she feels my hand exerting a firm but gentle grip on her tail. "I simply wished to gain the attention of my mate." She replies, making me sighs as I scratch her head and hear her purring as she feels my ministrations.

"Ya know, a simple touch of my hand could have worked out in the same way." I remind the Liepard, who seems to be enjoying my touch quite a bit as she presses into my hand. "But what would the fun in that be?" She asks me, another playful grin finding it's way onto her cheeks as she says so. Of course she'd think that, the sneaky feline.

"Hey! No fair, you guys! Mister Jay was staring at me first!" Chell huffs, although her smile indicates that she's being more playful than jealous. "Don't worry about it, kiddo. You're too cute for me not to stare at." I assure the Dewott, who blushes as her smile turns a mite bashful.

"Aw, Mister Jay! That's so sweet of you." Chell giggles, her red face telling me that the comment has had quite the effect on the innocent starter Pokemon. "Ugh, could you not do that in public? It's kinda gross." Taylor huffs, the Sewaddle looking quite annoyed that I'm doing so in front of her.

"Well, what can you do? This is just how he is." Belladonna chuckles wryly, the Venipede and Sewaddle having taken to resting in my hoodie. "Yeah. This idiot is just as much of a pervert as he was before you guys came along." Alita sighs, the Flying Type joining in on the insult fest. In response, I raise an eyebrow at the three Pokemon.

"I'm surprised you lot are still following this pervert around." I chuckle, quickly seeing Taylor and Alita's facial expressions become flustered as their faces take on a red tint. "Of course I'm following you around, you ass! Can't have you perving on any other girls, after all!" Taylor huffs, the Sewaddle glaring daggers at me despite her own anger being not as justifiable.

"Well, it's not like it's just because you're a pervert and an idiot. I guess you've been nice to me sometimes. But only sometimes!" Alita mumbles softly, before she snaps at me as her angry fire returns. "Alright, I get it. I'll be nicer to you girls more often." I chuckle, nodding in understanding as I pat the Unfezant on the head.

"You really don't have to do that, stupid idiot. You're already way too nice..." Alita replies, averting her gaze from mine as she feels my hand rub her head and neck gently. "Who said I need you to be nicer to me, you ass?" Taylor huffs, although her flushed face isn't really getting her own anger across.

"I can't deny that Jay is very nice." Nova adds, getting Cleo's attention. "Well, Ah can't argue with that. He's been like that fer as long as Ah can remember." She chuckles, the Flaafy having taken to walking alongside Nova. "Jay is very kind, as well as supportive of our hard work. I would not have decided to join him otherwise." Leah adds as if talking to herself, a small smile on her red face.

"Wow, Jay. A shameless flirt as always, I see. You can't even go for five seconds without trying to seduce more girls to join your harem, huh?" Safia snickers, teasing me as she walks beside me and Leah. In response, I turn to her with a wry smile and a shrug.

"Well, what can I say? I love 'em a ton. What, you jealous or something?" I retort, my words causing the Zoroark to chuckle as she nears me a little more. "Well, who's to say I'm not? I'm pretty sure you can tell if I like ya, Jay." She asks me in return, turning my own tease against me in a smooth fashion.

"Well, I can't say I don't like you. You're a pretty bold vixen yourself, and that's part of what makes you really attractive." I grin back at her, causing the lupine to blush as she hears me compliment her like that. "In that case, let me show you something that'll make you like me even more." The Zoroark grins, quickly using her illusory powers to change her own form.

"Okay, I do not need to be around for this." Dani sighs, already catching onto what Safia's trying as she turns away. "Yeah, me neither." Cleo adds, the Flaafy suddenly finding much more interest in the bushes and trees around us despite finding none earlier. Wonder what they're on about?

"Holy..." My words end up dying in my throat, as I see the Zoroark standing before me flash a sexy grin my way. Yup, she just gave herself a bust that's rivaling a D-cup. With black furry breasts and pink nipples as well as her current form to add to the image, she's the spitting image of an anthro. To say I'm aroused would be an understatement, 'cause I'm rocking a serious hard on right now.

"Are those things seriously that good?" Alita asks no one in particular, before she sneaks a peek at her own breast area. However, she quickly frowns once she realizes that human anatomy is different than that of an Unfezant's in that aspect. "Damn it." Alita spits, her comment unheard by anyone.

"Those are kind of interesting. I wonder what Jay likes about them so much?" Nova is also a little interested about Safia's new tools of seduction, the Volcarona eyeing the fake boobs with interest as she asks herself that particular question. Oh Nova, if only you knew...

"Uh, Jay? Why'd you stop walking all of a sudden?" Belladonna asks me, before her focus shifts to Safia and she immediately understands. "Oh." She sighs, while Taylor gives an audible groan at my reaction to seeing breasts. "C'mon, you ass! Move it already!" The Bug Type shouts into my ear, shaking me out of my boob induced stupor.

"Jesus Christ!" I yelp, jumping once Taylor's voice had hit my ears. Shaking my head to clear it, I croon my neck to stare at Taylor. "Thanks for that wake up call, Taylor. Who knows how long I would've been staring for?" I chuckle, getting my small savior to roll her eyes in annoyance.

"Forever, probably. You're such a pervert, you ass." Taylor replies, to which I chuckle at her insult. "Alright, I get it. Thanks for looking out for me anyways, Taylor." I thank the Sewaddle with a grin, said Bug Type averting her gaze as she hears me say that. Seeing her friend do so, Belladonna simply smirks knowingly.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, you ass." She replies dismissively, although her cheeks are a little redder now. "He's a real good guy when he wants to be, huh?" Belladonna snickers in light of Taylor's reaction, getting the Sewaddle to lightly shove the Venipede with her head out of embarrassment.

"The hell is that supposed to mean!?" Taylor shouts at the other Bug Type near her, getting a series of giggling to emanate from the Venipede as she teases her friend. Lily is just speechless, unable to form a response due to the perverted nature of Safia's milk jugs. Meanwhile however, three lovers of mine seem to be a little peeved.

"Safia, that is hardly fair at all. You've managed to make Jay so hard in a matter of seconds, and you haven't even touched him down there..." Katrina sighs, pouting as she glares at the jiggling illusory orbs that Safia's rocking in front of my face right now. Scratch that. They're hella peeved.

"Kat's right, Safia! That's not fair at all!" Chell frowns, her expression more of a cute pout than anything noteworthy of being labeled as an angry face. "Unfair." Nesia huffs, the Servine quickly moving to use her own vines to tie Safia up in order to get the cheeky lupine to cease her illusion.

"Ack-hey! Stop it, Ness!" Safia grunts, trying to free herself from the bindings. Nesia has a surprisingly strong vines, I'll give her that much. However, Safia's struggling only serves to push her sizable chest outwards more, giving me an even more erotic view of her boobs straining against their bonds.

"Uh, girls? Just stop for now, okay? Quit it with the vines, and the illusion." I speak up for the sake of my brain and my dick, both Nesia and Safia turning to look at me as I say so. "But Husband-" Nesia starts to say, which gets me to shake my head. "No buts. Now, put Safia down. You're making her feel uncomfortable." I sigh, the Servine nodding as she hears me out.

"Yes, Husband." She replies, reluctantly letting the Zoroark go so that she can touch the ground once more. "Whew, thanks Jay." The lupine thanks me as she rubs her sore wrists, getting me to gesture to her large fake mounds that are right in front of me.

"Safia, just get rid of the illusion. Unless of course, you want Nesia on your case again. I helped you this time, but I'm not doing that again." I tell her, Safia frowning as she hears me say that. "Oh, alright. Fair enough." She sighs as she nods, dispelling her illusory breasts and letting her tuft of black fur reappear before my eyes.

"You can't say that you didn't like them, though. I saw what was going on in your pants, Jay. The other you doesn't lie, now does he?" The lupine smirks, getting me to cough into my hand as my face flushes. As I do so however, I feel serpentine eyes boring into my back with no shortage of envy.

"It's no use. They won't even get close to being that big..." I hear Leah sigh in defeat behind me, which gets me to turn around to see the Lucario using her paws to rub at her own small mounds. Great, now Leah and Alita have the wrong ideas about getting with me.

"Listen, I won't deny that I liked those boobs of yours. I really like big breasts, to be honest." I admit, but I stop myself before I tell her that I thought her trick was pretty neat. Don't need her getting any ideas. "But the thing is, I like you as yourself better. I told ya before, didn't I?" I continue, walking up to the lupine and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"So, try not to use that trick. If I remember you for what you aren't, then it won't sit right with me. I wanna appreciate Safia the Zoroark, not her tricks." I speak my mind, trying to convince the Zoroark not to use trickery to seduce me. And it seems like it's working.

"Jay..." Safia whispers, genuinely surprised that I had turned her illusions down twice in a row. Seems like she was just testing me, after seeing me basically flirt with so many others. Her face flushes as soon as I finish, her expression becoming unreadable. Hopefully, this'll make her see that I'm not just thinking with my dick.

"You too, Leah." I sigh, catching the jackal's attention and getting her to immediately stop fondling her own chest with a yelp. "Don't think big breasts are everything, alright? I like ya all the same with what you're rocking now, so don't feel bad about it." I assure the Lucario, whose face flushes in embarrassment at my words.

"Thank you Jay, but… everyone's watching us..." Leah whispers to me, making me blush as I realize that I had basically admitted to liking big boobs in front of all of the Pokemon here. "Well, shit." I curse, Safia laughing hard once she realizes that I had made a fool of myself.

"Pervert!" Alita and Dani shout at me, their glares enough to kill off any sort of resistance to that accusation I had as their flushed faces betray their embarrassment. "Hey, I was stating facts! Don't judge me for liking what human females have, damn it!" I frown, unable to offer any sort of witty retort.

"Hah, you just admitted to being a pervert! Oh my god, this is priceless!" The lupine snickers, which makes me sigh as I shake my head. "Well, I just played myself." I groan as Chell and Katrina, as well as Dani and Belladonna all laugh their asses off. "Oh, ha ha. Very funny, everyone." I grumble, crossing my arms as I huff.

"Not our fault you're such a dumbass." Belladonna grins, Chell clutching her sides in mirth as she giggles uncontrollably. "That look on your face, Jay! It's hilarious!" Dani laughs out loud, the Cottonee referring to my own realization and embarrassment. Even Cleo can't help but stifle a laugh as she listens in, as I once again become the butt of the joke.

"Husband is unbelievable sometimes." Nesia shakes her head, smiling in amusement as Nova giggles in light of my slip up. "Well, he is who is is. However, I don't want him to change at all." The Volcarona admits, Nesia nodding in agreement and to herself as she observes the Fire Moth.

"So, you like large breasts Jay?" I hear a voice that isn't mine suddenly ring out from the bushes, getting me to snap to attention and survey the area around us. Everyone on the team is also suddenly quite aware of the extra voice that had popped out of nowhere, looking around for the source.

"Who's there?" I ask aloud, before seeing a certain rich prick step out from the bushes in front of us and grinning victoriously. "Hello again, Jay." The guy speaks, making me groan once I realize what I had been on edge for. "Oh, come on! Why is he here!?" Alita groans aloud, sharing my exact sentiments.

"Fucking hell, not this dick weed again." Taylor spits, already coming to hate the mere sight of the prick in question. Everyone else is quite on edge as well, the sudden appearance of Jimmy having been the last thing any of us had expected. Or wanted, for that matter.

"Oh god, not this loser again. Don't worry Lily, I'll make sure he doesn't hurt you." Dani sighs, already lifting a leaf to shield Lily from his view. "Thanks, Dani..."The Petilil replies as she makes full advantage of her friend's gesture, hiding behind the appendage and eyeing the opposition with fearful timidity.

"I'm surprised a filthy peasant like yourself would even consider the thought of appreciating the finer parts of a woman, Jay. I was under the impression that you were attracted to animal genitalia!" The little bitch laughs, taunting me for what he assumes to be one of my weak spots.

"It doesn't matter what I like, you piece of shit. Judging by what you tried to do last time, I'm pretty sure you like dicking Pokemon too." I raise an eyebrow, which immediately gets Jimmy's face to flush red in equal parts embarrassment and anger as he stamps his foot on the ground angrily.

"Silence, Jay! I shall not be insulted by the likes of you, especially not for what I tend to enjoy!" Jimmy growls indignantly, the bastard's reaction making me chuckle. "Heh, you just admitted to liking Pokemon. You perv." I grin cheekily, having played the poor fool into admitting that he was a Pokephile as well. This of course, gets a chorus of snickers from the more humorous members of the team.

"He just straight up admitted it! How fucking stupid do you even have to be!?" Alita laughs out loud, Taylor unable to keep her hostile glare going once she realizes I had basically sent the guy on a fool's errand. Meanwhile, Chell and Nesia, as well as Cleo and Katrina all have humored grins on their faces.

"Hah! He fell for it so hard!" Dani laughs, the Cottonee shaking with mirth as she points a leaf at the confused rich kid. "God, he's so dumb!" Safia snickers, shaking her head as she eyes the other teenager with more humor than annoyance. "Wow, what a dumbass." Belladonna adds, the Venipede unable to hold back her snickering as Jimmy's face turns three shades redder.

"What are your pets laughing about!?" He roars at me, his anger completely failing to faze me as my shoulders shake with laughter. "Nothing. Maybe I should call my team back, make sure they don't get raped by that tiny dick of yours." I tease him, pointing an accusatory finger his way and watching him shake with barely contained fury.

"Is it weird that I feel kind of sorry for him?" Lily asks no one in particular, Leah sighing as she and the Petilil both eye the prick with a sense of pity. Pity is wasted on this piece of trash, but whatever. "Well, Ah guess I kinda feel bad about Jay teasin' 'em about his pecker." Cleo shrugs uncertainly, the Flaafy not too sure what to make of this.

"Nova? Are you alright?" Leah suddenly gasps, which gets me to turn around from insulting the stuck up little shithead to look at said Fire Moth. Nova seems to be quite scared of the guy, if her wide eyes and complete reluctance to move are of any indication. Heck, she almost seems nauseous.

"Nova? What's up?" I ask the Volcarona, who looks quite tense as she turns to address my question. "Jay, he… was one of the humans who mated me frequently." Nova starts, before her breath hitches in fear as Jimmy lays eyes directly on her shaking form. Now that I think about it, Nova did mention being used by him a lot.

"Oh, I see you've managed to recruit that insect whore into your ranks. Perhaps as a pleasure slave?" Jimmy grins as he sees the Volcarona by our side. Hearing him say that, I immediately clench my fists and grit my teeth in barely held back anger. He did not just say that, the arrogant little bastard.

"Don't insult her like that, needle dick. You don't have the right to. Your point?" I sigh, already getting the feeling that the urge to punch him will double after what he as to say. Jimmy seems to be angered once again by my insult, before he clears his throat. I actually raise an eyebrow, surprised by his sudden increase in control.

"Well, I must admit that I have grown quite attached to her ability to please me during my past experiences at that club. Her fellatio is quite exquisite, not to mention the softness of her inner sanctum feels simply divine." Jimmy grins perversely, making me shudder. Not from just disgust, though.

"So, I have decided that I shall be purchasing her from you, Jay! Fear not, for I shall put her services to far better use than you ever will." He cackles, to which my fists clench in anger. He did not just say that. He did not just say that he wanted to buy her off me, like some cheap whore.

"I shall be willing to pay you quite handsomely, Jay. What do you say?" Jimmy finishes, before turning to Nova and grinning at her lecherously. "No… no!" Nova shakes her head, whimpering in fright as she finds herself frozen to the spot and unable to move out of his sight. The urge to punch his smug face didn't just double this time, it quadrupled.

"No way in hell that's happening!" Belladonna growls as she and Taylor glare at Jimmy from where my hoodie. "You heard her, asshole. Now back the fuck away." Safia growls, as she and Leah raise an arm in a protective gesture in front of Nova, much to her surprise.

"You won't get her, you big meanie!" Chell yells, moving in front of Nova with her Scalchops raised in a defensive cross. "We won't let you." Nesia adds, the Servine moving in to shield Nova as well. "Agreed. We shall not allow you to lay so much as a finger on her." Katrina hisses, glaring daggers at the little prick.

"Yer not layin' a hand on her, ya weirdo! Ah'll knock ya so hard, ya'll see tomorrow today!" Cleo growls, electricity crackling within her wool as she says so. "We're not gonna just sit back and let you do that, asshole!" Alita shouts, glaring at the little shithead. "Back off, fucker! She's our friend, and you're not touching her!" Dani yells, getting Nova's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Everyone..." The Volcarona whispers, while Lily smiles at the shocked Bug Type. "Don't worry, Nova! We'll protect you, I promise!" The Petilil assures her, to which Nova smiles in kind. "Thank you so much. All of you…!" Nova replies with teary eyes, as I smile in light of their comradery.

"What are your pets doing?" Jimmy asks, genuinely confused by their actions. "Well, like they said. You're not getting her, moron. Get lost, I'm getting sick just looking at you." I reply, to which Jimmy grits his teeth in frustration and stamps his foot on the ground as he throws a tantrum.

"The insolence, the nerve of you! I shall make sure you suffer for this, Jay! If you will not let me buy that whore off of you, then I shall claim her for myself after I defeat you!" The guy rants, which I promptly tune out as I glare at him. That's it. We're kicking his ass, right here and right now.

"So, do we kick his ass now? Please tell me we do." Belladonna pleads with me, the Venipede quite eager to get to beating the shit out of this piece of human garbage. "Of course we fucking are!" Taylor replies simply, the Sewaddle now appearing to be mentally and physically prepared to fight Jimmy off.

"Then let's not waste any more time, shall we?" I grin at the two Bug Types, letting them down as I turn to face Jimmy. "So, what Pokemon are you using this time?" I ask the guy, more interested in beating him quickly so that I can get his smug grin out of my field of view.

"You'll find that I've purchased quite the team of formidable Pokemon, Jay! You don't stand a chance!" Jimmy grins maniacally, quickly grabbing a shiny Premier Ball from his belt and throwing it out to reveal his first Pokemon. Out pops the same Seismitoad from before, which doesn't really bode well for us.

"Okay, this might be a problem." I gulp, having recalled the last time we squared off against this brutish monster of a Pokemon. He took an entire volley of attacks to the face and was still on his feet! Barely, but still! How strong do you even have to be to tank something like that!? This isn't good at all.

"Fuck, not this guy again!" Taylor hisses nervously, quickly realizing that the odds are stacked against us here. "Uh, boss? We might have a problem here." Safia speaks up with an intimidated look, the Zoroark unable to forget just how easily she was manhandled and got a few broken bones courtesy of the large Vibration Pokemon.

"Safia's right, Jay. We may have a serious problem on our hands." Leah tells me, a look of unease on her features as she eyes the large Toad. The rest of the team also seem to be having a bit of a hard time keeping themselves composed, as they're fixated on the enemy Seismitoad that's ready to fight.

"Oh, it's you guys again. Heh, this'll be fun." The large Water and Ground Type smirks, cracking his knuckles as he stares us down. Now that I get a good look at him, he's at least a head taller than everyone else here. Chell and Nesia glare daggers at the large Toad, both starter Pokemon having had their asses handed to them on a silver platter by the very same Pokemon.

"What do we do?" Belladonna whispers to me, to which I place a hand to my chin. "I dunno, to be honest. Hold on, I'm thinking." I frown, as Jimmy takes sick delight in seeing my initial shock and my following troubled look. "What's the matter, Jay? Intimidated? If you are, then I suggest you give up now." The prick snickers, making me glare his way.

"Hell no." I growl, before turning back to stare at my team. What Type is he? Right, Water and Ground. I need a Grass Type, but Lily's too immobile to send out there for a brawl. I need someone who can move on a whim, and can slow him down just long enough to do some real damage. Who could possibly do… that...

"Oh, wait. There is someone here that can do that." I speak aloud, mentally chiding myself for my own stupidity. "Dani, I need your help with this one." I address the Cottonee, who looks to me in surprise. "Who, me?" Dani asks me, her voice laced with her inherent uncertainty.

"You heard me. I need you to beat up that big ol' bastard over there." I chuckle, gesturing to the Seismitoad. "But why me? I mean, I haven't even trained for that long! I… I'm pretty sure I'm not that strong yet." The Grass Type admits, her gaze lowering guiltily and unable to lock with mine.

"Listen, Dani." I speak up, crouching down so that I'm roughly face to face with her. "It doesn't matter how much you've trained, or how strong you think you are." I tell the Cottonee, lifting her up so that she's looking into my eyes. "Jay? What are you doing?" Dani questions nervously, getting me to point to her.

"I believe in you, and I know for a fact that you'll be able to kick his ass. I trust you on this, so will you trust me?" I ask the Grass Type in return, getting her to blush as her eyes widen in surprise. However, she soon makes up her mind and responds by looking back to me with a determined gaze.

"If you say it that way, then I can't really say I don't." She replies, sending me a wry grin and a look of unease before nodding her head to show her compliance. "I'll do it. But don't be too surprised if I get knocked out, okay?" The Cottonee chuckles, still showing her own inability to trust her own strength.

"Ugh, have you chosen your pathetic Pokemon yet? How long does it even take to come to such a simple decision!?" Jimmy yells, quickly losing his patience with us as he watches us converse with one another. In response, I simply glare at the insufferable asshole that is Jimmy.

"Why don't you just can it for five fucking minutes, dick weed? We're just about done here, so you'll get your ass kicking soon. Be patient, alright?" I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose as I tell him off. Looking back to Dani and ignoring Jimmy's subsequent rant about his supposed greatness, I see that his comment has stung the Cottonee's already weak pride even more.

"Don't listen to 'em, Dani. Trust yourself, and you'll be fine." I assure said Grass Type, who looks to me with a weak smile. "Okay, I hear ya. Just don't get your hopes up, okay?" She sighs, before floating forward to face the Seismitoad standing before us.

"I hope Dani's okay..." Lily sighs, quite the saddened look on her face as she witnesses her friend's lack of confidence in herself firsthand. "Don't worry, Lily. This'll be a huge confidence boost for her when she wins." I assure the Petilil, who looks to me with a hopeful expression.

"Are you sure, Sir? What if she loses?" Lily questions my plan, getting me to chuckle as I pat her head. "Trust me on this, Lily. She won't lose, because she's way too strong for this guy to beat." I tell the worried Grass Type, whose expression shifts to one of surprise and awe as she hears me out.

"But how? That Pokemon's super strong. N-not that I don't want Dani to win…!" Lily speaks her mind, before quickly realizing that she had basically insulted her friend and tries to amend for it. "Heh, don't you worry about it. She's got this, you'll see." I chuckle, patting her atop her leafy head as she turns to watch the fight between her friend and this towering monster of a Pokemon go down.

 **Heya, everyone! I think I did awesome on my tests for once, so that's a good note! I felt happy about myself, so I took my friend up on his offer to watch the new Venom flick. It was... actually pretty meh, with the plot being a mite fast paced for me. Usually, Marvel Movies are longer so they get more character development in. Can't say I don't like the idea of- WAIT WAIT WAIT! SPOILERS AHEAD, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK PEOPLE!**

 **...**

 **(This is a spoiler warning. Get used to it if I reference movies in the future.)**

 **...**

 **That taken care of? Okay, back to gushing! Anyways, I liked the idea of a symbiote touched by Eddie's actions and changed for good causes, and a female host for Venom to bind to being represented in the movies, as you could do tons of kinky shit with that Klintar on your person. Or should I say, in your person? (Wink wink nudge nudge) All those tentacles don't need much explaining now, do they? One hell of a masturbation or bondage device for sure.**

 **Anyways, I'll head off and fap my newly acquired boner away now, so later!**

 **Yours truly,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	82. Chapter 80

Chapter 80

[Jay]

"Are you being serious, Jay!? That pesky little thing doesn't stand a chance!" Jimmy laughs out loud, finding the idea of Dani fighting something as powerful as his own Seismitoad to be quite hilarious. In response, I simply roll my eyes as I observe the situation. Despite hiding my own fears of this not working out, Dani has a pretty good chance of winning this bout.

"Hah, this must be a joke. That little fluff ball won't even be able to scratch me." The Seismitoad snorts, finding the prospect of having to fight the little Cottonee rather amusing. What he fails to realize however, is that his own pride serves to work in our favor. The insults only serves to sadden Lily and Dani even further, the latter looking like she's considering backing down.

"Jay, I'm not too sure about this any more." Dani calls out to me from where she is, getting Lily to flash me a worried look. "Are you sure about this, Jay? No offense, but I think this plan of yours is dumb. Even for you." Belladonna speaks up with worry in her tone, eyeing the Cottonee that's barely able to keep herself composed in the face of an insult.

"It's not just dumb, it's fucking crazy! Do you want her to die out there, you ass!?" Taylor yells at me, the Sewaddle berating me for making such a dumb move. However, the older members of the team are simply watching with neutral faces, placing their trust in me. "I have a plan." I mouth, before turning away from them for now as I turn to address the nervous Grass Type on the field.

"Dani, it's fine. You're much stronger than you think, you know. Stand your ground, believe in yourself, and I swear this'll be a win for ya." I tell her, to which the Cottonee flashes me a weak smile as she sighs in resignation. Seriously though, this plan is risky. So many things could go wrong here, but the payoff will be enormous if it does work. Gotta risk it for the biscuit.

"Alright, fine." Dani replies, before floating up to the usual level where she likes to hang out. "Dani and I are ready, Jimmy. Now let's get this over with quick, so you can get the fuck outta my sight." I call out to the arrogant little prick, who smirks as he nods in agreement to what I said.

"We seem to be agreeing with each other for once, Jay! This fight will be over quick, and end in your defeat!" Jimmy cackles triumphantly, pointing a finger at the little Grass Type. "Seismitoad, grab that pathetic ball of cotton! Turn it into mulch!" Jimmy orders, already seeming quite confident that victory will be his. Hearing what his Trainer has to say, the large Toad simply lumbers closer to Dani.

"I won't waste too much energy beating you, little guy. I still have those two runts to beat, after all." The Seismitoad grins, sending a glare in the direction of Chell and Nesia. In response, the two starter Pokemon return the glare with no shortage of enthusiasm.

"We'll see about that." I shrug, counting the steps that the big bad toad is taking before he gets close enough to Dani. "Come on, you idiot! Tell her what to do already!" Alita yelps, trying to get me to issue a command that will save the Cottonee from the wrath of the Seismitoad.

"Sir, I'm worried for Dani." Lily tells me, the Petilil looking quite fearful as she sees Dani go up agaisnt the Seismitoad. I simply pat her head, trying to offer her some sort of comfort as I watch the fight. Dani isn't looking too good herself, the Cottonee already shaking in her coat as she watches him get closer. In response, I grit my teeth as I focus on the enemy.

"Not yet. Wait for it..." I mutter, watching the large form of the Vibration Pokemon stomp closer and closer. From what I remember, he's decently fast if he was able to suddenly grab Safia without her noticing. So, I need to be absolutely sure that Dani's Stun Spore will be able to take effect. Otherwise, this plan will fail miserably and Dani's gonna get her ass kicked.

"Wow, even your Trainer's not gonna try anything to save you." The Seismitoad chuckles, as he finally nears the range that he won't be able to move away to dodge the Stun Spores in time. Dani freezes in fearful consideration of the idea, before Chell's shout breaks her train of thought.

"Mister Jay would never do that!" Chell shouts in retaliation, the Dewott glaring daggers at the pompous little shit head. "Chell's right, Dani! Jay would never do anything like that!" Lily adds, assuring her friend and getting the Cottonee to snap out of it.

"Even you must realize the foolishness of your plan, Jay! You must have realized that you have no way of winning this fight!" Jimmy cackles in delight, taking my lack of response as a sign of me forfeiting the match. He has no idea how wrong he is though, and he's in for a nasty surprise.

"Dani, now! Use Stun Spore!" I shout, breaking the silence on my side of the field and causing Dani to jump to attention. This surprises everyone present, actually causing the opposition to stop in his tracks. "Eh?" Jimmy makes a surprised noise, as I begin the first phase of my plan. "Right!" The Cottonee replies, quickly shaking loose some of her spores and directing them at the large toad.

"What the hell…!" The Vibration Pokemon coughs, accidentally inhaling the spores due to his initial shock. Luckily for him, those spores tend to lose their effects when in contact with water. However, he's too close to avoid the multitude of yellow specks that cloud the area around him, latching onto his skin and causing paralysis.

"That was way too close!" Alita sighs in relief, Taylor having mostly the same reaction of relief and anger towards me. "Yeah, you ass! Why'd you wait for him to get so damn close to her, anyways!?" The Sewaddle berates me, hitting me with her leafy head.

"Well, I needed to make sure he couldn't move as fast if I wanted Dani to stand a chance. He was fast enough to trap Safia with his hand, even though Zoroark are known for their decent speed and reflexes. On top of that, weaker Pokemon naturally release weaker Stun Spores that don't stun as often." I continue, Leah nodding as she picks up what I'm putting down.

"As such, you needed Dani to be close enough to ensure that the spores would stick and result in a guaranteed decrease in the enemy's speed." The Lucario finishes for me, getting me to chuckle and pat the jackal's head. "Nice going, Leah. You're getting smarter and smarter. I wasn't going to risk letting Dani fight him head on." I explain to the two as Leah blushes, Safia nodding in realization.

"Insult to me aside, that was actually pretty smart." The Zoroark admits, Leah looking at me in amazement as I pat the lupine's shoulder. "Hey, I wasn't insulting you. I was just learning from a mistake, that's all." I assure Safia, who grins my way. "It's fine, Jay. I'm not that bummed about it. I'm more amazed that you actually thought of a plan like that." She replies, getting me to smirk in kind.

"And it worked perfectly." I can't help but speak up in triumph, having fooled both Jimmy and his Pokemon into falling for my ploy. Little known fact: Paralysis halves the speed of whoever it affects, if the stun doesn't take effect. "Dani, now's your chance! Float away, so he won't be able to hit you!" I issue the command, Dani immediately beginning to gain altitude as she starts to ascend.

"Urgh, this game has gone on for long enough! Seismitoad, grab that pathetic little Pokemon now!" Jimmy shouts, not liking the idea of being caught off guard by me. The large Vibration Pokemon grunts, reaching out with his large hand to try and apprehend Dani. However, the spores are slowing him down far too much, allowing Dani to simply avoid his grasp at her and take to the air.

"Damn it!" The large Pokemon growls in frustration, as his muscles get affected by the spores that are now stuck to his skin. "Missed me, ya big lug!" Dani taunts, the Cottonee now seemingly much more confident in herself now that she landed a successful hit on such a powerful Pokemon and got away to gloat about it. In response, I can't help but smile. There's the confidence she needed!

"Yeah! Nice one, Dani!" I shout at the Cottonee, who turns to look at me in surprise. "Jay?" She whispers, before her smile returns full force. In response to my celebration, Jimmy's face flares up in anger. "It's not over yet! Seismitoad, use Mud Shot!" The rick prick commands the large Vibration Pokemon, who turns to spit a large chunk of mud at the offending Cottonee.

"Take this, ya little… urk!?" The Seismitoad makes a shocked noise as he freezes, unable to initiate the attack any further. "What the fuck are you doing, you overgrown frog!? Attack!" Jimmy yells, not understanding why his powerhouse of a Pokemon isn't moving at all.

"He's paralyzed, you dumbass. Dani, use Cotton Spore! Aim for the eyes!" I command, Dani smirking as she quickly catches on to what I'm trying to do. "Take this!" The Cottonee shouts, launching some of her sticky cotton at the toad, who's currently unable to move much at all. The cotton ends up latching onto his eyes, blinding him and rendering him unable to see anything.

"Get this gunk outta my face!" The large toad growls, irritation seeping into his tone as he tries to pry the sticky stuff loose. However, it just sticks his hands to his face and serves to irritate him even further. "Get that stuff off your eyes, you imbecile!" Jimmy rages on, unable to figure out how to deal with Cotton Spore. And now, the blinded Seismitoad makes for an easy target.

"Dani, I think you now what to do next. Energy Ball!" I smirk, Dani sharing my idea as she charges up a ball of green energy. The Energy Ball grows bigger and bigger, Dani beginning to sweat as she puts more and more power into the energy based attack.

"Come on, you idiotic toad! Hit it, it's right in front of you!" Jimmy yells, stomping his foot on the ground as he tries to get his Pokemon out of the mess they're in. "The hell do you think I'm doing, you loud mouthed runt!?" The Seismitoad bites back at his supposed Trainer, already disagreeing with each other and bickering.

"Nngh…!" I make sure to eye the Cottonee closely as she strains herself, as to make sure she doesn't make the sphere too large. If it grows too big, then it'll end up exploding in her face. Kinda the last thing we want here, so I decide to tell her that the current size of her move is good enough.

"Don't overdo it, Dani! Let go of it, now!" I call out to the Cottonee, who hesitates for a second before she lets go of the charged up attack. It slams right into the exposed underbelly of the large toad, which knocks the wind out of him and causes him to stumble back a few steps.

"Oof!" The Seismitoad groans, before he stands back up again and finally manages to rip the blinding veil of cotton off of his face. "You'll regret that, you damn pest!" He roars at Dani, who's still airborne. "Jay, what now!?" Dani yells for me, a look of fear flashing on her face as she sees her upper hand being torn to shreds.

"Stay calm, Dani!" I repliy, just in time for Jimmy to grin as if he had gained a leg up on me now. "This fight is over, Jay! Seismitoad, Mud Shot!" Jimmy cackles, the large Vibration Pokemon grinning darkly as he eyes the floating, helpless Cottonee in midair.

"Gotcha now, ya little shit." He chuckles, although not out of humor. As soon as he says that, he puffs up his cheeks and lurches forward to spit a large ball of mud at Dani. "Dani, move!" I tell her, her eyes widening as she sees the attack head right for her. She tries to dodge, but she doesn't have much control of where she floats while in the air. Uh oh.

"Dani, look out!" Chell gasps, fear surfacing in her expression as she watches the Cottonee. Her eyes are fixated on Dani, hoping against hope that her friend would be able to get away in time. "Dani, no!" Lily cries out, fear etched on her face as well as she worries for the safety of her fellow Grass Type.

"Shit!" Said Cottonee yelps as she braces for it, only for her own relatively light weight to move her out of the way of the massive attack that would have otherwise smothered her. Huh, forgot that projectiles have to push air out of the way to move through it. That's physics 101, Jay. Moron.

"What the heck?" Dani asks, raising an eyebrow in confusion at the lack of excruciating pain. "What the fuck was that!? Hit it, you stupid animal!" Jimmy shouts impatiently, really wanting to win against me for once. "What the…!? How did you dodge that!?" The Seismitoad growls in anger, which gets Dani to grin tauntingly at the big lug.

"Missed me, ya big dumb moron!" She laughs triumphantly at the guy, who looked like he could turn red with rage at any second. Nice taunt, but her quips could use a little more work. Her idea's nice, though. Get the Pokemon all riled up, so he'll make more mistakes. And he can't really afford that, with the paralyzing spores still affecting him.

"I'll crush you flat, you annoying little pest!" The Seismitoad yells, before inhaling and spitting Mud Shot after Mud Shot at the Cottonee. However, that doesn't prove useful at all. Once again, Dani's weightlessness proves to be quite helpful in this situation as she simply dodges around the projectiles with ease. Dani's got this mile wide grin of triumph on her face, which gets me to smile too.

"What are you doing, you pea-brained moron!? It's obviously not working, so do something else!" Jimmy shrieks at the Vibration Pokemon, who doesn't take kindly to that little insult. He immediately stops shooting at Dani, and turns to glare at his so-called Trainer.

"Go get 'em, Dani!" Chell cheers, the Dewott having found new faith in the Cottonee. She's now pumping a fist in the air, her eyes shining with hope as she watches Dani bob and weave around the shots fired at her. Lily's quite happy to see her friend get the upper hand as well, her eyes never leaving the Cottonee for a second.

"Dani, now's your chance! Energy Ball!" I shout, to which the Cottonee nods in confirmation. "Right!" She affirms, beginning to charge up another large ball of green energy in front of her. The Seismitoad doesn't notice her doing that, though. He's way too busy glaring daggers at Jimmy.

"Talk smack about me one more time, and I'll fucking kill you!" The Seismitoad roars at the little shit, who begins to shake in fear once he sees the fury and irritation radiating from his Pokemon's stance and venomous glare. Welp, he's been shut up for now. Just in time too, as the Vibration Pokemon gets smacked in the back by another glowing green sphere.

"Argh! You little bastard!" He yells, feeling the full force of the super effective move hitting him dead on. He stumbles forwards a little bit, but he remains standing as he turns to glare at the cockily grinning Dani. "You're pretty slow, aren't ya?" The Cottonee taunts, getting the large toad to growl in annoyance and rage as he goes back to spitting another volley of Mud Shots at her.

"Hold still!" The Seismitoad growls, trying his best to land a hit on Dani as her weightless body helps her effortlessly scoot around the attacks that were aimed her way. Well, she does get grazed by a couple of shots, but she doesn't take any more damage than that. If you didn't know the truth, I'd say she could be the next Neo. The Matrix, anyone? No, just me? Fine, I'll stop.

However, that godly level of dodging doesn't last. By pure chance, a stray Mud Shot manages to smack Dani in the face. "Dani!" Chell, Lily and I simultaneously yell, while the Cottonee forces out a pained cry. In those moments, time seemed to slow as Dani was snatched out of the air.

"Ack…!" Dani groans as the force of the attack ends up knocking the wind out of her, sticking to her coat and causing her to fall unceremoniously to the ground. She hits the floor with a thud, Lily just breaking down at the sight of the large Toad dispatching her friend like that.

"Dani! Dani, please get up!" Lily cries, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she sees the still form of the Cottonee. "Come on, Dani. Don't give up!" I shout, hoping against hope that she'd be able to hear me. "Heh, down for the count." The Seismitoad smirks, stomping over to look at his handwork.

"Ugh, my head..." By some stroke of sheer luck, Dani awakens. "Dani!" Lily gasps, overjoyed at the sight of her friend still conscious. I'm happy too, but soon realize that there's a bigger problem. "What's going- Shit, shit shit!" Dani mumbles before she yelps upon seeing that she's grounded. She tries to escape the hold of the mud, but it's stuck in her coat and weighing her down.

"Now, it's time to...urk!?" The Seismitoad starts again, before he's forced to freeze in place due to the Stun Spore having taken their effect on him once again. "Dani! Energy Ball, one more time! Aim for the head!" I shout to the Grass Type, who sends a knowing grin my way.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" The Cottonee replies, already working on focusing her energy into another sphere. "Urk… can't… move…!" The Vibration Pokemon grunts, trying his best to muscle his way through the paralysis. However, his efforts prove futile as he's stuck in place and forced to watch another Energy Ball the size of a beach ball whiz towards his face. "Oh, shi-"

"Yes! Got 'em!" Dani cheers, seeing the ball of Grass energy score a direct hit on the Seismitoad's noggin. "I'm seein' double over here..." The large Pokemon slurs, already feeling quite dizzy as he struggles to focus, the multitude of super effective Energy Balls taking their toll on him.

"Nice shot!" I pump my fist in victory, just in time to see the large toad finally topple over with swirls in his eyes. "What!? But how!?" Jimmy yelps in fear and confusion, having seen the entire fight from behind a tree he was using to hide from the Seismitoad. In response to Dani's win and Jimmy's loss, I smirk.

"Your loss, dick weed." I reply, before grinning widely at the Cottonee floating up above us. "Dani, you did it!" I call out to her, which finally seems to click into place the fact that she won into her head. "I won! I did it, you guys!" Dani shouts in delight, before she lowers her appendages as she flops face first into the dirt. She's tired out from all the fighting, and she's pretty messy right now.

"Dani! You're okay!" Lily squeals with delight, as I chuckle at the happy reaction of the Petilil. "Let's get you to stop kissing the ground now, shall we?" I suggest, walking over to pick her up off the ground. "Did you see that!? I shot at him, and boom! He went down, and I beat him all by myself!" Dani grins, her smile making Lily beam as she leaps off my shoulder and into my arm to nuzzle her.

"Dani, you did it! You really did it!" The Petilil cheers, looking very happy that her friend had managed to succeed. "Yeah, Dani. You did it." I chuckle, ruffling the Cottonee's fluff and getting a light blush to color her cheeks as I do so. "Well, you did say I should believe in myself." She nods my way, to which I smirk as I gesture to the downed opposition.

"Well, I told you to do that, but you actually did the ass kicking. Told ya you were stronger than you thought." I tease her lightly, poking her face and making her sigh. "Yeah, you did. Thanks for that, you weirdo." She grins, her blush just intensifying the cuteness of her confident smile. In response, I give her a thumbs-up.

"No worries. Although that Seismitoad got into quite the sticky situation back there, huh?" I joke, breaking the warm moment with my pun. "Oh my god, you could not have picked a worse time." Safia sighs, the Zoroark failing to hide the growing amusement behind her wry grin. Leah simply opts to shake her head in disbelief, unable to comprehend why I had decided to spoil such a tender moment.

"You just had to make that pun, didn't you! You freaking idiot!" Alita groans aloud, smacking the back of my head with her free wing. "Ugh, you ass! Can't you lay off the jokes for five fucking seconds!?" Taylor yells at me, using her leafy head to smack the back of mine right after the Unfezant's done wing slapping me. In response, I can't help but chuckle.

"Hey, a guy's gotta make fun somewhere. Don't let that bug ya too much, alright?" I grin even wider, their previous attack and their irritation only serving to further spur me on. "God damn it!" Both of them shout in my ear simultaneously, getting me to laugh at their frustration. As the two continue to vent their frustration at me for having the gall to spout such terrible jokes, Belladonna simply sighs.

"Really, now of all times? You're such a dumbass, Jay." She comments, shaking her head as Dani giggles at the two annoyed Pokemon. "Well, you kinda did just ruin the moment Jay. But their faces are just priceless!" The Cottonee snickers, making me chuckle as I pat her head.

"Eh, no rush. We can have all the moments you want after this, so just let me make more puns. Opportunities are few and far between, ya know." I tell the Grass Type, who blushes at the mention of having more tender moments. However, a certain someone isn't taking his defeat too well.

"Jay! How dare you defeat my Pokemon, you worthless peasant!?" Jimmy seethes, pointing a finger at me as his face glows red with rage. In response, I shrug as I look his way. "He wasn't even taking any orders from your whiny ass anymore. Dani did you a favor, ya know. Without her, he would be destroying you right now." I sigh, Jimmy not having any of my reasoning as he returns his Seismitoad.

"That overgrown frog was useless! Fortunately, I have another solution. Let's see you win against my new Fighting Type!" Jimmy declares, tossing out another Premier Ball and letting the capsule pop open on the ground. From the Pokeball, a Gurdurr pops out and smirks cockily.

"Now, which one of you weaklings wanna tussle with the muscle!?" The large Pokemon crows, twirling it's signature steel i-beam in a show of it's own skill and power. It spins the bean above it's head and then behind itself with both hands, finishing by letting the beam rest on it's right shoulder. This taunt doesn't go unnoticed, as a certain Flying Type immediately reacts to those mocking words.

"Weak!? I'll show you weak!" Alita shouts, not having one bit of the insult coming from the mouth of the Gurdurr. "Let me at 'em, Jay! I'm gonna kick his ass into next week!" The Unfezant growls, having been easily riled up by the taunting words of the opposing Fighting Type. In response, I nods as I gesture to the Gurdurr.

"Alright, you can have a crack at it. You're really strong though, so try not to kill him by accident." I joke, chuckling at her enthusiasm to beat down the Fighting Type. Come to think about it, she's the only one who's got the typing advantage over the musclebound Pokemon.

"Yeah, I know." Alita replies dismissively, although a smile does break out on her face when she hears me say that. "You wanna fight? You got one!" She yells at the Gurdurr, who smirks as he flexes his muscles her way in response. She wastes no time in gliding past me and taking center stage, flapping her wings as she glares at Jimmy's Pokemon.

"She's made her choice, Jimmy. You ready?" I ask the pompous asshole, who raises an eyebrow at what I said. "She made the choice to battle? Are you still letting your Pokemon choose their fights? Pokemon are simply tools for battle, and nothing more! You really should realize that simple fact." Jimmy sighs, shaking his head and getting me to narrow my eyes.

"Yeah, no. That's only what your pea brain thinks is the truth, dumbass. Alita is so much more to me than that." I growl, his own delusions giving me more reasons to hate him. Hell, I can feel my brain cells committing suicide one by one just looking at him. During my retort, I do notice said Unfezant looking to me with a light blush. As I think that, Jimmy decides to do a little sneaky preemptive strike.

"Gurdurr, use Low Sweep!" Jimmy shouts, the Gurdurr smirking and making good use of it's large steel beam to swing horizontally at Alita. "Shit! Ali, look out behind you!" I shout, Alita turning around just in time to see and feel the smack of a large steel i-beam with her own body.

"Ack…!" Alita gasps, the Fighting Type energy infused blow having struck her right in the body and flinging her into a nearby tree. "And that's that. That bird was all bark and no bite." The Gurdurr chuckles, triumphantly hoisting it's beam onto it's shoulder as it smirks pridefully.

"Now what, Jay? Your weak Pokemon has been defeated, because it was just as worthless as you are!" Jimmy taunts me, getting me to shake my head and sigh. "Not yet, needle dick." I roll my eyes, gesturing to the tree that the Unfezant was knocked into seconds ago. Doesn't he know that Flying Types resist Fighting Type moves? The leaves are shaking, indicating that Alita's still very much moving.

"You cheating piece of shit! I'll fucking destroy you!" Alita screams with rage, emerging from the bushes and taking flight. Aside from the small bruise on her chest, she seems to be unharmed. And boy, does she look righteously pissed. In response, Jimmy gawks for a second before he composes himself.

"Well, it would seem that your weak Unfezant is simply a little more resilient that I had planned." Jimmy growls, gritting his teeth in anger as I smirk mockingly his way. Seeing the enraged Unfezant, the Gurdurr simply smirks as he readies his steel beam again.

"Back for more, birdie? I'll just swat you away like last time." The Fighting Type Pokemon taunts, seeming quite full of himself as Jimmy also grins haughtily. "You think just because your pitiful Pokemon's in the air, I can't do anything about it? Gurdurr, use Focus Blast!" Jimmy orders the Pokemon, laughing darkly as he revels in his clever strategy.

"Gotcha, boss! I'll ground this bird!" The Muscular Pokemon grins, slamming his steel beam into the ground before charging a large ball of Fighting Energy in both of his freed hands. However, Jimmy seems to have missed one important factor in his supposedly clever plan.

"Uh, dude. Flying Types have ranged moves too, ya know." I deadpan, before Alita simply beats me to the punch. With her wings glowing a radiant white, she glares venomously at the creature that had dared to attack her by surprise. "Take this, fuck face!" Alita roars, flapping her wings at the Gurdurr repeatedly and flinging a swarm of Air Slash blades right at the Fighting Type.

"Uh oh." The Gurdurr gulps, face turning pale just before the onslaught of razor sharp attacks hit home, cutting him all over for a continuous volley of agonizing pain. After the smoke kicked up by the blades clears, I can see the target of Alita's rage still standing, but just barely. He's just relying on his steel beam for support now, not even able to muster the energy to pick it back up again.

"You're still standing!? Argh, I've had it with you!" Alita shouts, quickly descending with frightening speed as she prepares an Aerial Ace. "Woah, woah, woah! Timeout, timeout!" The Fighting Type Pokemon yelps, eyes wide in fear as he gets slammed in the gut by a hella pissed Unfezant surrounded in a white swirling glow. Note to self: Do NOT piss her off.

"Nice shot!" I cheer, seeing the Gurdurr get knocked off his feet due to the sheer power of the attack. He ends up slamming into a tree trunk, before he slides to the ground with the telltale swirls in his eyes. "And that's that, asshole!" Alita spits at the downed Muscular Pokemon, mocking the unconscious Fighting Type with his own words.

"She just fucking killed him!" Taylor gawks, having seen Alita show no mercy to the poor Pokemon. "Now that was just brutal." Belladonna agrees with the Sewaddle, shaking her head at the massacre that had unfolded before their eyes. The rest of the team are relatively stunned as well, seeing the aftermath of a pissed Alita.

"What!? But how!?" The arrogant asshole gawks, seeing his Pokemon get downed like a sack of potatoes. "Well, maybe you should have looked up typing advantages. Dumbass." I reply, causing the rick prick to stomp his foot in rage as he shouts about how unfair I was. Fucking hypocrite.

"Remind me not to piss you off." Safia chuckles nervously as Alita returns to our side, Leah nodding quickly as she eyes the Unfezant with hesitance. "Good job, Ali. I'm really proud of ya." I smile, patting the Flying Type atop her head and making her blush.

"Yeah, yeah. I know I did good, Jay. Not like I needed you to tell me that." She mumbles, her bright blush only serving to betray her feelings. "But I just wanted to tell you, ya know? I wanted you to know that I'm thankful." I chuckle, Alita turning away as she hears me say that. "Saying that won't change anything, you idiot." She huffs, making me smile as Jimmy points a finger at me.

"You and your pathetic Pokemon have not won just yet!" The rich prick retaliates, pulling another of his Premier Balls from his belt and throwing it onto the ground. The capsule immediately pops open to reveal a Simisage, it's tail limp behind it's back as it looks around frantically. It's eyes zero in on us, a fearful look in it's eyes as he tries to collect his bearings.

"Something seems to be off, Jay." Leah tells me as her eyes narrow, the Lucario immediately taking note of the behavior of the Pokemon. "Yeah. Aren't these guys supposed to be all energetic and stuff? He looks like shit compared to the others I've seen." Safia adds, the Zoroark not liking this one bit.

"Where the heck am I?" The monkey asks, not seeming to be the least bit familiar with where he is. Now that I take a closer look, the Pokemon seems to be sporting a bunch of bruises and cuts. My eyes narrowing, I deduce that Jimmy didn't exactly treat this one that well.

"What did you do to that Simisage?" I ask the opposing Trainer, who scoffs as he rolls his eyes. "What I do to my Pokemon is none of your business, you low-life peasant!" The rich prick huffs as he crosses his arms dramatically, to which I growl. Another poor victim of his exploits, no doubt.

"Alright, then I'll just have to beat it out of you." I reply, before turning to look at the team members that have the type advantage. However, I soon realize that I could use the Simisage's fear to my own advantage. Looking over at Nova, I see just the perfect way to do that.

"Nova, I'll need you to come over her for a second." I call out to the Volcarona, who looks to me in surprise. "Yes, Jay?" She asks, not sure what I require of her. "Well, I need you to go out there." I tell her, to which she shakes her head. "Jay, I may not be useful in this battle due to… to him." She tells me, her voice getting shaky as she gestures to Jimmy.

"Don't worry, Nova. I don't need you to actually fight. I just need you to start spreading your scales once you see me nod. Then, I'll work everything else out. I know I'm asking a lot of you, but try and work with me on this one." I explain to her, which gets her to nod reluctantly after a bit of thought. "Very well, then. As you wish." She nods, floating out onto the field.

"Hey, Jimmy! We're done." I call out to the asshole, who smirks as he readies his command. However, I interrupt. "Hey, you there." I address the Simisage, who looks to me with confusion. "Yeah, you. Are you sure you wanna fight? Because if you do, my friend here's gonna burn the flesh off your bones." I warm him, nodding to Nova to get her to begin shedding her scales of fire.

"What are you trying to do, Jay?" Leah asks me, to which I place a finger to my lips. "Watch and learn, Leah. I'll win without even having Nova attack." I tell her, before turning to the Simisage. "Yeah. See those? She'll use those to smother you, and you'll burn alive. Are you sure you want that?" I ask the already frightened monkey, who has now become paralyzed with fear as his eyes widen.

"You want that for yourself?" I repeat the question, getting the monkey to furiously shake his head. "Okay. Then all you have to do to not get singed to a crisp, is to give up and come over here." I gesture to a spot beside me, the monkey immediately bounding over and standing next to me, albeit shakily.

"Attack, you dumbass monkey!" Jimmy shouts, but his order falls on deaf ears. "Pay him no mind. Now, I'll need you to hold still so I can put you in here. I promise, I'll let you out the second the fight is done. Sound good?" I ask the monkey, who nods and lets me digitize it into the TBA for storage.

"See, dumbass? He gave up the fight." I chuckle, getting said pompous asshole to yell angrily at me. "You cheating, lowlife peasant!" He growls, which makes me laugh out loud. "See? Won without a single attack." I tell Leah, the Lucario eyeing me with amazement.

"Huh. Pretty smart thinking, Jay." Safia admits, nodding as Nova comes back over to my side. "Did I do well, Jay?" The Fire Moth asks me, to which I nod. "Yeah, you did. Good job out there, Nova." I chuckle, rubbing the Volcarona's horns and causing her to let out a happy sigh.

"I'm not done yet! My last Pokemon is going to destroy your pathetic team entirely!" Jimmy roars, throwing his last Premier Ball out onto the field to reveal- wait, is that a fucking Onix!? That thing is massive! "Uh, Boss? I think we're in some deep shit here." Safia gulps, Leah's eyes widening at the sight of the colossal rocky behemoth as it lets loose an ear-splitting roar.

 **Hey, guys! I'm back, and I bring good news! (Well, I think it's good at least.) Chapters may get a mite longer, seeing as how we've got a couple of new faces to look forward to, at least for the near future. The Simisage thing isn't permanent, mind you. Just a little thing I need to further my idea, so sorry if you actually wanted to see some action regarding that. Anyways, hope all of you had a great week! I sure did, 'cause it was reading week at U of T! No work, all play bois!**

Well, you still kinda had to revise for the Economics Test next week. So, not exactly a break, huh dad?

 **Damn it, Jay! Stop being a butthole! I didn't ask for you to rain on my parade like that!**

Well, maybe ya should've included that in your little paragraph.

 **...Whatever, you sack of crap. Get going, before my headache gets worse.**

Alright, geez. Could I ask ya to hurry up and get to the part where I bang you know who, though?

 **NO! Story development comes first, dickweed! If I wanted that, I just would have made a story full of one shots! ...Hmm, might not be such a bad idea.**

Right? I get more pussy, your readers get to see me smash some Poke cunts. Everyone wins.

 **Except for me. I have to write more shit for that to happen, you know. And whoever said anything about you being in the one shots?**

...Damn.

 **Okay, and I'll just try to sleep in the freezing ass weather of Canada now! Have a good rest of your day, and until next time! Later, guys!**

 **See ya again next week,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	83. Chapter 81

Chapter 81

[Jay]

"You've got to be fucking kidding me right now." I mutter, mouth hanging open at the sight of the newest Pokemon Jimmy has revealed to me. "Fuck, this is bad! That thing is massive!" Taylor yelps, while Belladonna also gawks at the sight of the large rocky serpent. "Jay, what do we do!?" Belladonna yelps, her tone of voice frantic as she tries and fails to stay calm.

"That Pokemon may pose a significant threat, Jay." Katrina tells me, while Nesia's eyes widen at the sight of such a large beast. "Whoa, that thing's ginormous!" Chell gasps, while Cleo gulps. "Yer tellin' me!" The Flaafy replies, as she and the Dewott are more than a little intimidated once they lay eyes on what we have to beat next.

"Okay, there's a big problem." Alita gulps, eyes widening as she stares the large behemoth of a Rock Type Pokemon down. "Oh, hell no." Dani gulps, the Cottonee's irises having shrunk to the size of pinpricks. "This does seem to be quite problematic, Jay." Nova comments, her panic evident in her tone of voice as the Onix glares at us. Lily simply yelps, hiding behind my leg for protection.

"Hah! You must face facts, Jay! You may have turned my Pokemon against me, but you'll never be able to defeat me this time! Just give up now, and hand me that whore!" Jimmy gloats, the smirk on his face indicating that he's taking some degree of satisfaction in my expression of shock. Before I can consider my options however, I suddenly hear the voice of a certain Unfezant next to me.

"Jay, there's no way in hell we're losing to this asshole!" I hear Alita growl next to me, the Unfezant looking quite determined to win. "I'm with Ali, Mister Jay! I'm not giving up, and I won't let him take Nova!" Chell adds, the Dewott glaring at the piece of human trash as she clenches her paws.

"I'm with them on this one, Boss. That thing may be big, but it's probably beatable. Besides, we can't let him take Nova. It wouldn't sit right with me, or anyone else here for that matter." Safia adds, the Zoroark smirking in anticipation as she says so. "R-right! I'll try my best to help, too! Nova's my friend, after all!" Lily nods, her determination touching Nova while surprising me as well as the others here.

"Agreed. We can't let him take her." Nesia nods to second Safia's words, Leah and Katrina nodding to show their agreement to the Servine's statement. "No way in hell we're letting that perverted fuck face take Nova!" Dani growls, glaring daggers at the Onix despite her current weakened state. "Ah'm with all a' y'all, so let's whoop some Onix tail!" Cleo nods, Taylor glaring daggers at Jimmy as well.

"Yeah! We're not just gonna let this fucker win, Jay!" The Sewaddle yells, Belladonna grinning anxiously as she looks over to the Onix. "If even Lily can find the courage to fight, then so can I! Let's kick some ass, Jay!" The Venipede declares, making me grin. Having heard their responses, I shake my head in light of their astonishing bravery. You guys would really risk it all for a friend, huh?

"I could give up, but where's the fun in that? Besides, I kinda wanna see how I'll fare against bigger enemies." I smirk, challenging Jimmy to finish what he started. "Well, unless you're too much of a pussy to finish what you started. Maybe I was right when I called you a little girl." I snicker, riling him up again in hopes that his blind rage will make this fight easier for me.

"That is it! I was kind enough to offer you mercy, but you spit in my face! I'll show you just how much power I hold over you, ungrateful peasant!" The rich prick shouts in anger, the Onix letting loose a roar to support the fighting will of it's Trainer. "Mister Jay, what's the plan?" Chell asks me immediately, all eyes on me as I think about how to beat this thing.

"Okay, Onix is a Rock Type, and they're seriously weak to Grass Types and Water Types. Not to mention, Fighting Types." I mutter, trying to get the facts straight. Most importantly, we should be a lot more careful with this fight. Nothing promotes caution like the possibility of getting crushed under roughly two hundred kilos of solid rock, after all.

"What's the hold up, Jay? For all that talk you spouted, you seem to be quite lacking in action! Or have you become a pussy instead?" Jimmy snickers, to which I roll my eyes and flip the little shit the bird. "Come on, dumbass. It's called forming a strategy, which is something I don't expect your dysfunctional garbage dump of a brain to comprehend." I reply, my words only agitating him further.

"Okay, so it's either Chell, Taylor, Lily or Ness first." I conclude, before looking at the four Pokemon in question. Lily's too slow on her feet-or stubs, in her case-so that isn't really an option. The other three might be able to pose a larger threat due to their own mobility, so there's that. But, only Taylor can use a move that slows the Onix down. So, she's my best bet.

"Taylor, you're up." I tell the Sewaddle, who grins at what I have to say. "Finally, some action! I was getting really fucking tired of waiting, you ass!" The Bug Type replies, taking to the field and preparing to fight the much larger foe before her. Seeing my choice of Pokemon to battle his Onix, Jimmy can't help but laugh haughtily.

"Jay, you must be getting desperate! Seriously, you're willing to use such a weak little Pokemon to fight my Onix!" The little dipshit laughs his ass off, which makes Taylor growl in barely suppressed rage as she hears what he has to say. "Weak!? I'll show you weak!" The Sewaddle growls, about to shoot her string at Jimmy directly.

"Taylor, calm down. If you hit him with anything at all, we'll lose by default." I warn her, making her stand down reluctantly. "Ugh, your human rules suck." The Sewaddle gronas, making me chuckle. "Yeah, I know. I wanna kick the shit outta him myself, too." I comment, Taylor smirking a little as she turns back to look at me.

"Yeah, I know right? Fucking asshole." The Bug Type adds, as we both share a laugh at that fact. However, I find that Jimmy's still laughing at us. That's just getting annoying, and gets an eye roll from me. "If you're done laughing, let me remind you that we have a fight going on here." I sigh, causing the rich prick to cease his laughter and shrug in response to my words.

"Very well, Jay. However, remember that you forced this humiliating defeat on yourself! Onix, crush that weak insect with a Rock Throw!" Jimmy commands, the Onix quickly thrusting it's tail into the ground and heaving a sizable chunk of earth up with the long appendage. It wastes no time in using it's dexterous appendage to hurl it at Taylor, whose eyes widen at the sight.

"Taylor, use String Shot! Pull yourself towards the Onix!" I shout at the Seaddle, snapping her out of her trance and getting her to shoot out her silky string. She manages to get her string to connect, but my vision of her is soon obscured by the large debris colliding with the ground. The impact of the earth with the ground kicks up a small cloud of dust, obscuring our side of the field.

"Taylor!" Chell gasps, the Dewott looking quite frantic once she sees no signs of the Bug Type on our side of the field. "Come on, sis! You got this!" Belladonna shouts, as I try and look through the cloud of dust. Come on, Taylor! You couldn't have just fainted with that, right? Please be okay…!

"Your pathetic Bug Type has been flattened, Jay!" Jimmy crows victoriously, which gets my eyes to dart around frantically, hoping to catch any sight of the Sewaddle. "Psst, Jay. Look at the Onix." Safia's voice cuts through my worry, the Zoroark using her eyes to gesture to the body of the rock snake Pokemon. Surely enough, there sits Taylor. She's unharmed by the Rock Throw, and she's grinning.

"Hey, girls. Over there." I whisper Chell and Belladonna, holding a finger to my lips as I use my own eyes to gesture to where Taylor is. "She's okay!" Chell gasps with her voice down in delight, while the Venipede smiles in relief.

"Yeesh, quiet down kiddo. Don't spoil the surprise, ya cute little goober." I grin wryly, ruffling the Water Type's head and eliciting a giggle out of her. "Oops! Sorry, Mister Jay!" Chell replies with a light blush, her sheepish smile getting me to chuckle. "Whew, she made it." She sighs, as I smirk as well due to where Taylor is.

"Taylor, use String Shot! Cover as much of the big guy as you can!" I issue the command, Jimmy raising an eyebrow in response. "Have you become delusional, Jay? Your Pokemon has been defeated! It cannot do anything of the sort!" The rich prick cackles gleefully, which quickly turns into confusion once he realizes that I'm not frowning in defeat.

"That's where you're wrong, moron. Take a closer look at your Onix." I chuckle, pointing a finger at the now flailing Onix. It lets off an angry roar, trying to shake off the little nuisance that's currently in the middle of crawling all over it. Taylor is busy lining the overgrown rocky snake with her sticky silk, lowering it's speed and annoying the hell out of it with her plentiful amounts of string lining it.

"How do ya like this, ya dumbass snake!?" Taylor laughs, continuing her rampage of attaching more and more of her string onto the large rocky snake. "Yeah! Go get 'em, Taylor!" Chell cheers for her teammate, while Belladonna simply watches her friend fight with a look of awe.

"Razor Leaf, now!" I shout, Taylor smirking at those words as she quickly flings her head from side to side and unleashing a barrage of sharp leaf projectiles that cut into the Onix. The large snake screams in agony, Taylor not allowing the beast any reprieve as she mercilessly pummels it from point blank range. And let's not forget, Razor Leah has a high chance of scoring critical hits.

"That's enough! Onix, use Dig!" Jimmy growls in annoyance, which gets the attention of his Pokemon and causes it to begin burrowing head first into the ground. Shit, how could I forget what Onix do best!? If she gets pulled under, she's done for! "Taylor, move! Get off before it goes under!" I shout, Taylor's eyes widening as soon as she catches onto what the Onix is doing.

"Shit, shit, shit!" She yelps, trying her best to get herself off of the hulking Rock Type in time. She's not gonna make it in time, unless she makes a jump for it. "Taylor, you're gonna have to jump! It's your only shot!" I shout at the Sewaddle, who only hesitates for a second before she takes the leap. Just as it looks like she's in the clear however, she gets caught on a stray line of silk.

"Fucking hell!" Were Taylor's last words before she got pulled under by the Onix, taking her through a trip underground. "Taylor!" Both Chell and Belladonna shout, eyes wide as both the Sewaddle and the Onix disappear underground, the only indication that they were ever there being the large hole in the earth. As Belladonna watches, tears well up in the corners of her eyes as Chell slumps to the floor.

"It would seem that your pathetic Bug Type is truly finished now." Jimmy smirks triumphantly, before his Onix resurfaces, carrying with it a barely conscious Taylor. She's covered in bruises and her leaf cloths are torn in multiple places, blood leaking from said cracks. Just then the string holding her in place finally snaps, dropping her unceremoniously to the floor.

"Taylor!" I shout, rushing to her side and scooping her up and off the ground. "Heh… D-did I… do good?" She chuckles weakly, before she closes her eyes. "Taylor, don't go to sleep! Wake up, please!" I yell, feeling the sting of tears as I look down at her limp form. However, judging by the slight rise and fall of her abdomen, she's still breathing. By some stroke of luck, she's still alive.

"Taylor, I'm so sorry." I mutter, punching in the command to put her into cryostasis within the AVR. This'll help with stabilizing her condition, until we can get her to a Pokecenter. "Is she okay?" Belladonna chokes, the Venipede unable to come to grips with seeing her friend incapacitated.

"She's not awake, but she's still alive. She'll be fine once we get to a Pokecenter." I tell the Venipede, who nods with tears pricking at her eyes as I walk back to our side of the field. "Damn it, this is all my fault." I growl, cursing myself for making that dumb decision in the first place. It would be fine, I said. We'll win this one, I said. I'm such a fucking moron, I can't even make sure that my team ends up safe!

"What's the matter, Jay? You seem distraught! Perhaps you should throw in the towel right now, and save yourself the heartbreak!" Jimmy cackles gleefully, not even waiting on me for a response. He's too proud of himself to even realize that his Onix did all the work, that spoiled brat. But, I was the one who thought a Sewaddle would stand a chance against something like an Onix.

"What did I do?" I whisper to myself, realizing the sheer stupidity of my choice. The simple thought of what I did, asking something like that of Taylor was gut wrenching to me now. What the fuck made me assume this was a good idea? I almost got her killed, for fuck's sake! Her being in cryostasis right now is proof of that. I didn't suffer for my bad call, but she did. Some kinda leader I am.

"Boss, you okay?" Safia asks me, the Zoroark looking quite concerned for my own mental state. In response, I look at her with my sorrowful expression. "I just sent someone who believed in me out to get maimed, so tell me if you think I'm okay." I growl in frustration, but mostly to myself as I stare sadly at my TBA. God, this feels like I just got punched in the gut.

"Jay..." Leah whispers, seeing me look at the device on my arm with a saddened look on her face. "Maybe… Maybe I'm not cut out for this whole leading thing." I mutter to myself, clenching my fist in anger and guilt. First getting everyone caught back in that arena, and now this? I shouldn't have decided on this, to put someone else out there to fight my fights.

When I started this journey of mine, I thought I'd be able to look after whoever came under my supervision. But, I've seen myself make mistake after mistake. How the hell is it that I'm getting everyone hurt over and over again!? What kinda leader does shit like that?

"You idiot!" Alita yells, as she smacks me over the top of my head. Safia is quick to act as well, slapping me across the face with her paw. Hard. It even leaves a red imprint on my cheek, which makes me feel incredibly lucky that she didn't use her claws on my face.

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Jay. There's not a single point that says you're not good enough." Safia speaks up, eyeing me with annoyance as I clutch my face in shock and surprise. "You said it to me, so I'll say it to you. You're fine just the way you are. Besides, we have to help Nova, right? We can't just let him take her." The lupine adds, almost teasingly when she mentions the first bit.

"You idiot, you're totally cut out for this! I wouldn't have stayed if you just kept making me lose, you know!" Alita adds, the Unfezant sighing in exasperation as she shakes her head. "Safia's right, ya know. We have to win! For her." The Unfezant replies, gesturing to the Volcarona.

"Yeah, Mister Jay! You're the best leader I know, so don't give up!" Chell protests, the Dewott looking up at me with genuine approval. "Husband, your leadership is vital." Nesia states, the Servine indicating that she wasn't going to let me beat myself up over such a small setback.

"I believe in your choices, Jay. You got me to realize that I could have been doing so much more, and my attacks could have been used in more varying ways. That's why I joined you, to make myself stronger." Leah tells me, a small smile on her face.

"And we have indeed become stronger, Jay. We have all fought with your instructions, and most of us have been victorious more than once. I believe in you, and so does everyone here." Katrina adds, as she reaches her tail out to wrap around my hand comfortingly. "Yeah, Jay. Yer a good leader, an' don't you ever forget it!" Cleo adds, the Flaafy smiling at me in assurance as she pats my leg.

"Jay, come on. You got me to try and fight, and I won! If you got someone like me to win, then you'll get us to win this one too!" Dani assures me as she taps my shoulder with her leaf, the dirtied Cottonee giving me a smile despite her state.

"You dumbass. The only one who thinks you suck at leading is you, so stop that. Look at Dani over there. She didn't really believe in herself, but you made her win the fight anyways." Belladonna sighs, the Venipede shaking her head as she smiles wryly. "Hey, I heard that!" Dani reminds the Venipede, although her playfulness indicates that she wasn't offended.

"I believe in you, Sir! You won't lose, I just know you won't!" Lily adds, the Petilil surprising me with the certainty in her gaze. "Jay, I also believe in you. I trust that you won't lose." Nova assures me as well, making me stare at everyone beside me in surprise as they voice their opinions. Damn it, you guys! You're seriously gonna make me cry again…! However, I wipe my eyes off before anyone sees.

"One, ouch you two. That seriously hurt." I chuckle as I rub my cheek bruise, a smile on my face once more as I face the Pokemon around me. "And two, you've made your point. I'll continue leading, if you'll let me that is." I reply, getting a series of nods from everyone else. "Of course we'll let you, duh!" Alita grins, shaking her head in mild amusement.

"Jay, are you going to give up soon? I'll have you know, I have important business to attend to!" Jimmy groans, making me roll my eyes. "Oh, hell no! You and I are gonna fight, and I'm sure as hell gonna win!" I shout defiantly, to which the little prick rolls his eyes in annoyance.

"Very well, then. If you truly think you stand a chance, which you don't. You even let one of those animals attack you, you worthless peasant!" The little shit head snickers, getting me to scoff as I hear his weak insult. He knows nothing of the deep bonds my Pokemon and I share, and I'm pretty sure Lily's made meaner comments about me that that.

"Laugh it up, dickweed. I'm surprised your dad doesn't hate himself with a vengeance for letting you into the world." I reply, before turning to check my options again. So, we have a few more Grass Types to choose before we have to resort to Chell and Leah. So, Nesia should be the best option. She's fast, and reliably powerful if push comes to shove. However, a certain Petilil makes her own choice.

"Jay, I'm going to fight." Lily speaks up from where she is, causing me and some of the team to turn her way in surprise. "Wait, what? Are you sure about this?" I ask the Petilil, unsure of whether I had heard her right. "Hold on, Lily. You sure? I mean, Taylor tried and she got destroyed!" Alita reasons with the Grass Type, who steels herself before nodding her head.

"I agree with Alita, Lily. I do not think you should fight that thing." Leah adds, the Lucario looking quite worried as she tries to hold the little Grass Type back. However, Lily remains firm this time around. She only hesitates for a split second, before shaking her head to indicate that her mind is made up.

"Lily, wait. You don't have to do this." Dani speaks up from within my embrace, pleading with her friend to get her to reconsider her choice. "Dani is right, Lily. You don't have to fight that Onix to help me." Nova adds, the Volacrona equally as worried for Lily as Dani is. "I can fight." Nesia adds, the Servine not too sure about this herself. However, Lily simply looks to them with a smile.

"It's okay. I don't want to just let you protect me. I want to be strong and protect you, too." Lily tells them, to which Nesia and Nova are speechless. "Lily..." Dani trails off, tearing up as she hears what her friend has to say. "Don't worry, Dani! I trust Jay to help me through the fight, so I'll be safe." The Petilil replies, casting the Cottonee's doubts to the side. In response, I kneel down to face her.

"Well if you wanna fight, then I won't hold it against you. You're seriously brave, but why are you doing this?" I nod to the little Grass Type, who smiles as she hears me out. "I wanna help everyone. Dani, Nova and you, Sir." She replies, her smile making her statement that much more genuine. "Go get 'em, Lily!" Chell cheers, the Dewott having accepted the Petilil's choice to battle.

"You'd better make sure she makes it out okay, or I swear to god I'm going to kill you." Dani looks to me with her warning, concern and anger flashing in her eyes as addresses me. "I can't promise that, but you can be damn sure I'll try my best." I assure the Cottonee, as Jimmy narrows his eyes at the tiny opponent that has been sent to fight his massive rocky snake.

"Aha! I see what you're planning, Jay! Trying to trick me by sending in a Pokemon that looks weak, just to land a sneaky hit on my Pokemon when I least expect it! I won't fall for the same dirty trick twice, you cheeky buffoon!" The little piece of human trash laughs victoriously, so proud of the fact that he had seemingly seen through my 'dirty trick'.

"Whatever you say, dude. Let's just fight already, so I can get to getting your dumb face outta my sight." I sigh, shaking my head as I keep a close eye on his Onix. "Fine, then. Onix, use Dig!" Jimmy shouts, quickly causing the large rock snake to grunt in acknowledgment before burrowing into the ground. Shit, this could go bad real quick.

"Jay, do something!" Dani yelps as she glares at me, panic showing on her face as she watches Lily stand there, just waiting to be attacked from below. She's too slow to dodge such a large and fast Pokemon like Onix, and I doubt she'll be lucky enough to get saved by her own typing advantage. "Lily, charge up an Energy Ball!" I call out to the little Grass Type, who nods as she quickly begins to focus.

"Don't worry, Lily! You got this! Just like training!" Dani shouts at the Petilil, while the rest of the team simply observes. However, none of them could be seen without a look of worry on their faces. "Look, you're gonna have to trust my judgment on this one. I can't risk letting Jimmy know what I have planned." I tell the Cottonee, which serves to calm her down a little.

"Well, I guess so. But I'm still worried about Lily, Jay. What if she doesn't make it out okay? What if she can't do it?" Dani begins to panic, to which I grab her head to slow her down. "Listen, she'll be fine. She'll have to learn how to fight by herself, so she's gotta start somewhere."

"She can't run if she wants to win, Dani. I have a plan, so you've gotta put your faith in me." I smile as I address the Cottonee, who reluctantly nods as I turn back to watching Lily store more and more power into that sphere of green energy. I can't tell when the big guy decides to attack, because I'm not Psychic. Lily can't move out of the way when the ground begins to shake, either. She's too slow.

"Nngh…!" Lily grunts, deeply focused as she continues to put more and more power into her attack. The only way for her to win is to commit an almost suicidal act. She's gonna have to make sure her attack lands, when the Onix comes up to finish it's Dig attack. She'll get the most damage in this way, and the recoil she'll take won't be as devastating as getting smacked with two hundred kilos of rock.

"Jay, what on earth are you doing? You cannot expect to hit my Onix with that attack, as it's underground! Have you finally lost it, in the face of my unbeatable power!?" Jimmy cackles, his look of confusion shifting into one of victory as he taunts me, the little prick having no idea what I'm up to.

"Well, you'll just have to unearth what I have in store for you then." I chuckle, not passing up a perfectly good opportunity to make a pun. "God damn it, you idiot! Even when we're serious, you're still making those stupid jokes!?" Alita shouts at me, having taken her free wing and slapped it hard across my head. "Jay, why now?" Dani groans, not really having it this time around.

"Now isn't a good time for this, boss." Safia frowns, although she's not really that miffed about me making a joke. "What? I gotta ease the tension, after all. If we don't we'll lose our nerves, and that's just asking to lose." I shrug, Leah sighing as she hears me out. "Yes, but there are other ways of relieving tension." The Lucario points out, as Chell and Nesia smile despite the gravity of the fight.

"Even after all this time, you haven't changed. Still making those annoying jokes of yours, I see." Jimmy groans, which makes me shrug as I smirk his way. Just then, I notice the ground begin to rumble and shake. As I quickly turn to the source of the cracking sounds, I see the earth underneath Lily begin to fissure and split as she struggles to pour more energy still into the Energy Ball.

"Lily, get ready to jump. On my mark!" I shout out to the Petilil who nods vigorously in confirmation, her eyes still squeezed shut as she keeps adding more and more power into the now basketball sized ball of energy. Meanwhile, we suddenly hear a muffled roar. It's muffled, but we can still tell that underneath that soil is one angry Onix.

"Jay, you fool! There's no way your pitiful Grass Type could ever hope to evade my Onix with a meager jump into the air! It's finished, and so are you!" Jimmy cackles, thinking that he's got this win in the bag. Well, we'll see how this bout ends. "Oh no, Lily! Got outta there!" Dani shouts, desperately trying to get her friend to avoid getting hit. However, the Cottonee's words fall on deaf ears.

"Mister Jay, look over there!" Chell gasps, getting me to see that the ground has begun to form a bump, with Lily in the center of it. "Holy crap, that looks bad!" Belladonna gulps, making me grit my teeth. "Not yet. Wait for it, wait for it..." I grit my teeth, waiting for the right time to allow Lily to let loose. Just as the Onix pokes it's horn out of the ground, I put my plan into action.

"Lily, jump now! Aim the Energy Ball at the Onix!" I shout, Lily using what little energy she has left to push herself into the air. Meanwhile, the Energy Ball follows her gaze as she wills it to face the massive rocky snake attacking from below. The sphere of green energy is so large and unstable at this point, that all it takes is one wrong touch for it to pop and release all of it's power in one big burst.

And luckily for us, the Onix's forehead provides just that. The second the large beast realizes that it fucked up, it's already far too late. It's head makes contact with the Energy Ball, setting off a huge explosion that throws Lily into the air and sends the Onix reeling. A cloud of smoke kicks up from the boom, and I catch sight of Lily falling from the smog.

"What the… What happened!?" Jimmy shouts, having no clue as to what just happened to his strongest Pokemon. "Help me, please!" Lily screams, having no flight capabilities to speak of. "Hold on, Lily! I gotcha!" I shout as I place Dani in the back of my hoodie with Belladonna, rushing over to catch the Grass Type mid fall with a brief use of my magic. Luckily enough, no one notices me do that.

"Lily! You okay!?" Dani shouts at her friend, who still has her eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of the fall. However, she opens her eyes once she hears the Cottonee calling out to her. "...Dani? Sir?" Lily whispers, getting Dani to shed happy tears as she leaps down from my hoodie and smothers the Petilil.

"You're okay! You're really still okay, thank god!" Dani cries, hugging Lily tightly with her appendages as she nuzzles her friend. Lily's bruised in some places, as well as looking a little dirty from the smoke. But other than that, she's perfectly fine.

"Did we win?" Lily asks us, to which I look up and grin. "See for yourself, Lily." I tell her, pointing a finger at the Onix she had just hit in the face with her massive Energy Ball. The creature is still standing, but it isn't moving. As the smoke clears however, We can all get a clear shot of the large bruise on the Onix's head as it falls over, unconscious from the blow to the head.

"Lily, you did it. You won!" Dani gasps in disbelief about it at first, before she yells joyfully as she hugs her friend, laughing in relief at the victory. "We did it, Sir!" Lily looks to me, getting me to pat her head as I chuckle. "Nope, you did it. I was the one just telling you what to do, and you did a real good job out there." I tell her, to which she begins to sport a blush as I pat her head affectionately.

"Well, you still helped me win. Thank you, Sir." Lily smiles after her little spell of embarrassment, her cute expression just causing my heart to stop as she says so. "That was a seriously risky plan, Jay. Why'd you try it?" Belladonna asks me, getting me to gesture to the Onix's body.

"Normally, I wouldn't have done something this risky. But, see that? Taylor's string is still stuck to it." I tell her, referring to the silk still attached to the Onix's body. "I figured that Taylor's efforts would have at least slowed it down a little, so that it would have needed more time to come up and finish the job." I explain, to which the Venipede nods as she understands what I was thinking about.

"Uh, Jay?" I suddenly hear from below me, making me look down at Dani. "Yeah? What is it?" I ask the Cottonee who lowers her gaze in slight guilt. "I wanted to say sorry for doubting you earlier. It's just that I was so worried about Lily, ya know?" The Cottonee tells me, not daring to meet her gaze with mine.

"Yeah, I get it. If my sister were in danger, I'd be worried as hell too. Not to mention, putting her life in the hands of someone like me?" I chuckle, patting the Cottonee on the head to cheer her up. "Yeah, you are pretty shady." Dani grins in kind as she looks up at me, happy that she's been forgiven. "I know, right? This dumbass is pretty weird looking." Belladonna adds, making both Pokemon laugh.

"Soul crushing insult aside, I think the both of you have become stronger." I chuckle, finding their insult to be in good fun. However, Dani looks down as she hears me say that. "Nah, I'm still not strong enough to protect Lily. Just look at how I did earlier. I mean, just one hit and I got knocked out of the sky." The Cottonee sighs wistfully, getting me to lift her up to my level.

"Jay?" Dani gasps, taken aback by the sudden increase in altitude. "You and Lily just knocked out some very tough Pokemon today, and I can't even begin to say how proud I am to be your Trainer. Hell, you just saved Nova from that rich kid. So don't even think that you're to weak to defend anyone, alright?" I look into Dani's eyes, which makes the Cottonee blush as she hears me out.

"Jay, I… thanks for saying that." Dani starts, before she realizes that I have a point. "Thank you, Sir." Lily adds, smiling as she nods at me. "No worries. You can always get stronger if you're still not satisfied, right?" I chuckle, patting the heads of both the Cottonee and the Petilil and making a deeper red tint creep onto their faces.

"You did it, Lily! That was amazing!" Chell cheers, the Dewott rushing over to my side with a big smile on her face as she compliments the Petilil for her fight. "Ah'll say! That was one heck of an endin', if Ah do say so myself!" Cleo adds, grinning happily as she congratulates her for the victory. Meanwhile, everyone else is also sporting a happy smile as a result of our win.

"Thank you, Lily and Dani." Nova floats up to thank the two personally, having been saved from her fate of being a sex slave to meet Jimmy's weird ass bondage needs. "Heh, don't worry about it." Dani chuckles, looking quite happy about her win and the praise from her teammates. "No problem, Nova! We're just happy to help!" Lily smiles, as the Volcarona smiles warmly at the two Pokemon.

"We weren't just gonna let 'em take you, ya know. Besides, I did promise to make the bad memories go away." I add, Nova nodding thankfully as she smiles my way. "And you did, Jay. Thank you." Nova smiles, using her smaller legs to cling to my arm and allowing me to feel the warmth of her body.

"Damn it! You haven't won yet, peasant! This isn't over yet, do you hear me!?" Jimmy shouts at me, angrily pointing a finger at me as he seethes with rage. "Yeah yeah, whatever. In case you haven't realized, you've lost. Just leave, you fucking eyesore. Get the hell outta here, and I promise not to kick your ass." I growl, to which the rick prick cackles with glee.

"Oh, I haven't lost yet Jay! I still have one more trick up my sleeve! Get them!" He shouts, before pointing a finger at me and making me raise an eyebrow. "Uh, what the fuck are you doing? There's no one else here but you and me." I deadpan, before multiple silver shapes whiz out of the bushes and secure themselves around my Pokemon as well as myself.

"What the fuck is this!?" Alita yells, her legs kicking around futilely as she drops to the floor, trying to free herself from her bindings. "Darn, it won't come off!" Cleo grits her teeth, trying to free herself from the ring. However, electricity just won't conduct within her wool.

"It's no use. I cannot use my powers." Nesia breathes heavily, the Servine trying and failing to get out of the ring. The force of the ring latching onto me makes me fall over, knocking the wind out of me and sending Dani, Belladonna and Lily tumbling to the floor.

"Damn, it's too tough! I can't get it off!" Safia growls as she strains against the ring with all her might, but fails to remove the device. "I am also trapped by this… infernal device!" Leah grunts, the Lucario not having much better luck than the lupine is. "Jay, help me!" Nova cries out, already looking quite scared of being bound again. "Mister Jay, I can't get out!" Chell cries, while I struggle myself.

"Shit, this is bad!" I wince, already feeling the draining feeling of my magic being blocked by the ring's machinations. UMP inhibitors, by the feeling of weakness I have right now. And I'm pretty sure the rest of the team are feeling it too, if they're any indication of that. But who fired these off? Jimmy couldn't have planned this by himself, so who's working with him?

"You have performed well, underlings!" Jimmy grins with delight, seeing me and my Pokemon helpless to move as a group of six grunts exit the bushes beside us. My eyes widen as I lay eyes on their shirts, each with an 'R' on them. The fuck is Team Rocket doing, working for Jimmy of all people!?

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Petilil)**

 **-Dani (Cottonee)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	84. Chapter 82

Chapter 82

[Jay]

"We got 'em, boss." One of the grunts speaks up, nodding to the rich asshole that I now see as their leader. "Yes yes, whatever. Now you've outlived your usefulness, so step away from him! I wish to have some words with this peasant here." Jimmy smirks, to which the grunt simply sounds off an annoyed click of his tongue before walking off to the side.

"Ugh, that wasn't fun. Lily, you okay?" Dani groans, the Petilil nodding as she turns her gaze to Dani. "I'm fine, Dani. But why is he working with Team Rocket?" Lily asks, a look of worry etched on her face as she watches the rest of us struggle with the rings. I have no luck, as my attempt to squirm out fails. "Damn it, get your foot off me!" Belladonna shouts, currently being pinned under the foot of a grunt.

"Why didn't you capture these little freaks, too!?" Jimmy shouts at the grunt, noticing that Lily, Dani and Belladonna are all relatively fine. "Nah, boss. They're all too weak to be of any danger. Your Pokemon made sure of that." Another grunt speaks up, before muttering something that sounds suspiciously like 'moron'.

"I know, right? Guy's seriously fucking stupid, mind you." I chuckle as I smirk at the guy, who chuckles as he hears that. "You shut your mouth, Jay! In case you haven't noticed, I have the upper hand!" Jimmy cackles, before he goes off on a tangent to the grunt about taking precautions to make sure I don't foil his great plan or some shit like that.

"Raagh! Let me go right now, you cheating bastards! I'll kick all of your asses!" Alita shouts, still wriggling in her bonds in hopes of getting loose. "Just quit it. Ali. You're wasting energy." Safia grunts, not trying as hard as she was to struggle against her own bindings. Leah doesn't say much, her clenched teeth indicating that she's still trying to shake the ring off herself.

"Mister Jay, what do we do?" Chell asks me, looking quite worried as she looks my way. Nesia says nothing as she looks my way, although her expression is showing some degree of worry as well. "This appears to be quite the dangerous situation, Jay." Katrina comments, making me sigh as I gesture to my ring with my eyes.

"Yeah, ya think?" I sigh, which gets a wry smile out of the feline. "I simply hope you have a decent plan of action, Jay." Katrina replies, making me shrug with what little movement the ring allows me. "Well, I'm working on it." I shrug, grinning sheepishly as I look around in hopes of finding anything to help me out here. However, Jimmy's foot landing in front of my face makes me sigh.

"Dude, this is low. Even for you, and that's saying something." I tell the little prick, hardly believing what I'm seeing for myself. Jimmy's hit some lows back when we were in school, but seriously? Asking for help from Team Rocket is the worst decision I've seen him make yet.

"Whatever do you mean, Jay? I wanted to see you suffer, and these people see to have an interest in you. So, it's a win-win situation! What they see in you is beyond me, however. All I see from here is a weak, arrogant little peasant that dared to defy me!" Jimmy laughs triumphantly, to which I grin cheekily.

"And all I see from here is the fact that you don't even seem to have a penis now, dude. Seriously, did it shrink when we last met?" I chuckle, which earns me a kick to the stomach. "Damn it! Let me go, you pieces of shit! You'll pay for that!" The Flying Type yells, kicking up some dust as she struggles against her ring. "Silence, Jay!" Jimmy growls my way, making me smirk through my pain.

"Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, needle dick?" I chuckle, which gets me another well placed kick to the abs. For a stupid moron that only thinks with his money, he sure does know how to kick. "Urk…!" I choke, coughing up some saliva this time. Ouch, I actually felt that one. Seriously thoguh, how the hell did this happen again?

"No, stop! Don't hurt him, you cheating meanie!" Chell shouts at Jimmy, the Dewott's cries getting promptly ignored as she tries to break free with renewed vigor. "Husband…!" Nesia speaks, the Servine's teeth gritted as she tries to struggle free and assist me as well. "Care to repeat that, Jay?" Jimmy sneers, which gets me to chuckle as I raise an eyebrow.

"What? Your stupid ass getting deaf, too?" I taunt him, receiving more kicks to the stomach for my trouble. "Damn it, damn it, damn it! Jay!" Alita shouts, struggling against her bonds futilely once more before giving up and letting tears prick at the corner of her eyes. "Consarn it all ta heck!" Cleo screams in anger, her stubby little limbs wiggling uselessly. If only anger gave you superhuman strength…

"Jay, no…!" Leah whispers, unable to do much of anything as she looks at me in horror for a few more seconds. Soon after that her eyes clench shut, her shoulders shake as she voices a few strangled sobs. Katrina and Safia have simply taken to glaring daggers at the piece of human garbage, who's kicking me while I'm down quite literally and metaphorically at the same time.

"Sir!" Lily gasps, unable to do much other than lay there and shed tears of sorrow. "Jay, no!" Belladonna shouts, struggling under the foot of the grunt. "Quit movin', ya little shit." The grunt growls in annoyance, grinding his heel into Belladonna and making her cry out in agony. Seeing this, my eyes widen before my horror makes way to anger.

"Hey! Stop it, you're hurting her!" I shout desperately, struggling against my bindings anew. The rest of the team can only look on in helpless anger and mortification, while Jimmy lands kick after kick into me. However, my reaction doesn't go completely unnoticed by Jimmy. He stops with a wicked grin, his gaze landing on the pained expression on my face and the hurt he's delivering to the Venipede.

"Ah, I see now! You care so much about these lowly animals, even more so than you do yourself!" Jimmy realizes, which gets me to chuckle as I shake my head slowly in disbelief. "Wow, so you just see this now? God, you're such a dumbass." I groan and let loose a laugh, which immediately gets me to hiss as I feel the throbbing pain in my stomach.

"Enough of your banter, you insignificant whelp!" Jimmy roars at me, before deciding against planting his foot into my body once more. Good for me, too. Any more of that, and I'm pretty sure he would've broken something important. However, what I hear next gets me to freeze, my blood running cold as I turn to the source of the voice.

"No… Not again!" I hear Nova scream in fear beside me, getting me to roll over to my other side to see that Jimmy has taken to rolling the Volcarona over. Once I see his dick out of his pants and hardening quickly at the sight of the helpless Fire Moth however, I quickly realize what he's up to.

"Leave her out of this, Jimmy." I try to reason with the guy, who smirks darkly as he gestures to the struggling Volcarona beneath him. "Since you care about your Pokemon so dearly, I shall take extra pleasure in seeing your look of anguish when I defile them!" Jimmy cackles, once again revealing to me his plan. If this were any other sitting, I would have punched him in the face by now.

"Seriously, Boss? You're really gonna fuck the thing, right here and now?" One grunt asks his leader, who spits at the guy with a look of disbelief and annoyance. "And do I question what you do, random insignificant person!? No! So, do not judge me for what I am about to do in the name of vengeance!" Jimmy barks at the guy, who sighs and shakes his head.

"...And just when I though you couldn't get any more fucked in the head." Another Team Rocket lackey sighs, already looking away with his fellow grunts following suit. Seems like they're not big fans of Pokemon loving, huh? But, I'm too preoccupied with the idea of a snitch like him touching Nova in places she doesn't want to be touched in.

"That's not happening, you little shit. Get away from her, right fucking now." I growl, trying to break through my bindings with renewed anger and hatred towards the little shit of a person. Seriously, is there no limit to how low he can sink!? However, Jimmy's face simply contorts into one of gleeful and mocking villainy as he addresses me.

"And forgo a chance to make your face contort into despair as you watch me fuck your Pokemon!? I think not! Now watch peasant, and watch good! I want you to remember the look on her face, all the while knowing that you could not save her!" Jimmy laughs maniacally, which gets me to struggle for a few more seconds as my mind races to come up with a solution to the rapidly approaching problem.

"You're… not…. touching her..." I grunt, suddenly getting an idea as I roll onto my stomach. Using my legs to prop myself up, I use my hands to steady myself. "What am I not going to do, you worthless cur? I can't hear you, with your face planted in the dust!" Jimmy mocks me, his tone of voice only making me angrier as I push myself to my feet using my head and neck.

"I said… you're not laying a finger on her!" I yell, charging at him once I manage to stand up again. "What in the world!?" Jimmy shrieks, the grunts a little too late to stop me as they previously had their backs turned from the sight in order to avoid having to watch him have sex. As a result, they are all shocked as I am able to headbutt the bastard for even thinking about raping a friend of mine.

"Jay!?" I hear Alita and Belladonna gawk from beside me, the two not having expected a move like that from me. Aw, that almost makes me feel insulted. "Nice move, boss!" Safia smirks, despite the current situation while Katrina smiles in light of my own effort.

"You get the fuck off her, right now!" I growl, making sure to slam my head repeatedly into his rib cage for good measure. "Ack, ow! Get this peasant off me, you worthless buffoons!" Jimmy yelps, trying his best to stave off my head slams of anger as he kicks me back. I feel his heel sinking into my gut once more, which elicits a pained grunt from me. However, I don't falter in my headbutts.

"Hey! Help the boss!" One of the grunts shouts, having finally realized what was happening. I barely get to get another headbutt in before a gunshot rings out. I barely register the shot piercing through my lower torso, entering my innards and causing excruciating pain to sear through me.

Time seems to slow as the shot hits me, weakening my stance enough for Jimmy to kick me off of him. "Ghh…!" I grunt, feeling tears brim in my eyes as I feel blood soak my hoodie. God, this seriously hurts. "Ack, ow..." I grunt, barely able to regain my senses. However, two of the goons pin me down as soon as I hit the floor, which only provides me with struggling room. Not that I'm moving, though.

"Jay!" Everyone yells as soon as they see the blood and the open wound, to which I chuckle weakly as I look to them. "You can't die, Mister Jay! You just can't!" Chell sobs, her tears already brimming in her eyes as she begs for me to cling to my life.

"No worries, everyone. I'll be fine for now. It's just a flesh wound." I assure them as I force a pained smile, to which Alita glares heatedly at me. "That doesn't make it better, you idiot!" The Unfezant shouts, tears threatening to spill from her eyes as she looks my way.

"I've had enough of this! Shoot him again!" Jimmy shouts, not willing to take any more of my defiance. "But boss, he's already been shot." One grunt protests, before Jimmy sends him a death glare. "I did not ask for you observation, you imbecile! Shoot him again!" The rick prick growls, the Team Rocket goon debating whether to go through with it or not.

"I can't do that, boss. Not to a kid." He finally shakes his head and drops the gun, making Jimmy growl in frustration and annoyance. "Very well, then. I shall deal with him myself. Give me that!" Jimmy growls in anger, walking over to take the gun from the floor and aiming it at me.

"Time to die, peasant. Any last words?" Jimmy cackles darkly, trying to imitate a classic villain as I find myself staring at the barrel of the gun in his hand. "Fuck you. Go to hell, dickweed." I spit at him, which gets him to sneer as he lines up his shot. "Defiant to the end, I see. Very well, then." Jimmy tsks in reply, before pulling the trigger.

The first shot rings out through the forest, slamming into my chest and cracking my lower left ribs. "Augh, fuck!" I yell, going rigid as I grit my teeth in sheer agony. God, getting shot hurt so bad. It's even worse than a round of Air Cutter, or a back full of Patrat scratches. However, the asshole holding the gun doesn't let me rest easy.

"It hurts, doesn't it Jay? I would hate to be in your shoes right now!" The rick prick laughs cruelly, before emptying the clip in my general direction. Five of the rounds pierce my torso, while two more catch me in the leg. One grazes by my face, but leaves no major damage there. Not able to use my own power to defend myself, I can only lie there, weakly bleeding out as Jimmy keeps shooting me.

"Mister Jay, no! Please be okay, please!" Chell cries out in fear, tears soaking her cheeks as she sees me bleed from my lower chest. "No, no, no! You can't die on us now, you idiot! Get up, right fucking now!" Alita shouts at me, the Unfezant letting her tears fall freely from her cheeks as she sees me get shot.

"You can't die on us, you dumbass! Not like this!" Belladonna shouts, trying her best to wriggle out from underneath the foot of the Team Rocket grunt. Finding no progress to be made, her form slackens as she breaks down, crying tears of sorrow as she watches me lie there.

"Jay, you'll be fine! I'll think of something, just hold on!" Safia shouts desperately, sounding like she's trying to deal with her own disbelief more than anything as she sees me writhe in pain. "Jay, I beg of you! Do not die and leave us behind, please!" Katrina cries as she watches helplessly, unable to do anything as she lies there with tears streaking down her face.

"Husband..." Nesia chokes, the Servine already shedding tears of helpless sorrow as she looks to me desperately, hoping against hope that I'll end up okay. "Don't you dare go dyin' on us now, consarn it! Ya hear me!?" Cleo yells, her efforts in vain as her words fail to do much other than make me feel even more regretful inside.

"You cannot give up yet, Jay! You have to live!" Leah shouts, unable to keep herself from crying as tears flow down her cheeks. "Don't close your eyes, Jay! Don't go to sleep, please!" Dani shouts, her leaves pushing my arm with as much strength as she can muster in her current weakened state.

"Sir, please don't go..." Lily sniffs, tears already freely flowing from her eyes as she sees copious amounts of blood leaving me from my bullet wounds. "Jay, please don't die. You can't..." Nova trails off, her words dissolving into sobs as she cries helplessly. So, is this how I die? Shot to death by a rich fuck who thinks he can play god? Damn it, I feel so weak.

"Out of ammo already?" Jimmy sighs after he hears a series of unsatisfied clicking noises, throwing away the weapon and walking back over to address Nova. "Well, I suppose I could take the rest of my pent up anger on you, you little slut." He grins perversely, slowly unzipping his pants to approach the helpless and emotionally shaken Volcarona.

Too pained to speak, I can only glare at the two other people holding me down, one of them sighing as he looks down on me with a sense of pity. "Sorry, kid. Orders are orders." He replies as he holds a knife to my neck, which does nothing to quell my fear and anger. She's not getting raped, damn it! I won't let that happen! But what am I supposed to do here?

"No, no…! Nova..." I weakly groan, a couple of things falling out of my pocket in my struggle. I pay them no heed, though. I can't black out now! Not when she needs me! However, Dani has an expression of shock at what falls out of my pocket. "Are those…?" She gasps, before she gains a determined look on her face and crawls towards the object with her leafy appendages.

"Dani? What are you…?" Lily calls out to the Cottonee, before she too lays eyes on what Dani's been staring at. Seeing the glowing items before her and looking back to the desperate situation Nova's in, she doesn't even give the idea a second thought as she focuses her efforts on moving herself towards the objects as well. Wait, what do I have that glows orange?

I don't get much time to think after that thought, though. As soon as both Grass Types touch the stones, a white light quickly engulfs the area around us. "What the hell!? It's so bright!" One of the grunts shouts, as everyone around us lifts their eyes to shield themselves from the light. "What is that infernal light!? Turn it off!" Jimmy yells at his subordinates, who are unable to do much themselves.

"Whoa, who turned on the lights?" Safia asks, her question most likely due to the fact that she can't see anything either. "Beats me! I can't exactly see much of anything, either!" Alita grunts, the Unfezant currently sounding more annoyed by the light that anything else.

"Sure as heck ain't me! Ah'm seein' this fer myself, here!" Cleo replies, as I hear the grimace in the Flaafy's tone as she tries to keep the light out of her eyes. "Geez, that's seriously freaking bright!" Belladonna groans in slight annoyance, although one could almost hear the relieved smile on her face right now. About damn time we caught a lucky break!

"Oh, I know! Someone's evolving!" Chell cheers excitedly from somewhere around me, making me grin as I realize that the evolution is happening not to one, but two of our allies. It doesn't take much to guess who the two are, either. The sight once the light fades isn't any less relieving, either. As soon I open my eyes, I hear the grunts begin to scream in pain.

"Where did all these petals come from!?" One of the grunts shrieks, as he and his buddies have their skin shredded by an entire storm of pink and sharp flower petals. The petals even start to cut into our bindings, so that's a plus. The petals seem to congregate around a single Pokemon, whose appearance is now radically different from the small plant bulb that she had evolved from.

"Lily, you look so pretty now! Look, Ness!" Chell gasps, the starter Pokemon's eyes wide as she observes with barely contained glee. Well, Chell isn't wrong there. Her green, leafy dress is really alluring, and gives her a generally mature and elegant feel. She's also sporting a large flower atop her head, and her head is decorated with more green leaves that give off the feel of human hair.

"Well, can't argue with that. You look…urgh…look a lot prettier now, Lily." I chuckle, my comment getting the Petilil's face to flush a healthy shade of red. "O-oh! Thank you, Sir..." The Grass Type smiles nervously and twiddles her new arms, her sudden lack of focus causing the petals to begin to dissipate. Lily's grown much taller with her evolution, now averaging out to somewhere over two thirds of my height.

"Now's your chance, you pathetic wastes of space! Subdue that meddling Pokemon!" Jimmy yells in frustration, angry about having his own plan thwarted. "Lily, watch out!" Belladonna shouts, having been freed from under the grunt's foot in their panic. The Venipede wastes no time in shooting a round of Poison Sting at some of the grunts, slowing them down as the poison begins to take effect.

"Yeah! Nice shooting, Bella!" Chell cheers, before I stare at the grunts with a look of urgency. Shit, they're not stopping! Lily, please notice what I'm staring at and defend yourself! "Look out…!" I hiss in agony as I eye the Liligant, who realizes the situation she's in and prepares to raise another storm of flower petals in self defense. However, it never had to come to that.

"Oh no, ya don't! You're not hurting Lily, assholes!" I suddenly hear Dani's voice shout from beside Lily, as another newly evolved Pokemon joins the fray. "Dani!" Lily shouts joyfully, having caught sight of her. Now a more powerful Whimsicott, Dani nods to her friend in assurance.

"I said, I'd protect you, didn't I?" Dani tells Lily, a smirk on her face and mine as she says that. Dani has changed too, having become much larger now. She now looks to be roughly a meter in height, her body not longer completely surrounded by her protective cotton. As soon as I catch sight of her though, I can see that she's been charging up a particularly powerful Fairy Type move.

"Everyone, look away!" I shout, just before Dani unleashes all hell on the Team Rocket goons. Her Dazzling Gleam shines brightly throughout the area, catching my eyes even though I had looked away. Not only that, the force of the Fairy Type move sends all of us tumbling away from the source of the strong burst of Fairy energy.

"Augh! I can't see!" I hear a grunt shout around me, having had the misfortune of staring right at the Whimsicott when she unleashed her attack. As a result, he and his buddies are now plagued with temporary blindness. How the fuck does that work? Fairy Type powers, man. Don't question it.

"Everyone okay? Are the rings broken?" I call out around me before coughing up some blood, no longer feeling the power sapping influence of the ring around my arms and waist. Now that I check, the ring has now broken into pieces. Dani's Dazzling Gleam was the most likely culprit of that, having been the final strike needed to break it off after Lily had damaged it with her Petal Blizzard.

"We're all okay, Mister Jay!" Chell replies to my voice, as I see her beside Katrina, Ness, Nova and Cleo. "We're all good over here, boss!" Safia adds, the Zoroark gesturing to the other members of the team that had been scattered in all the commotion. "Dimwits! Don't let them escape!" Jimmy roars, still having issues with seeing as he flails around uselessly to find us.

"Good, now we need to get the hell outta here! Hold onto me, and hold on tight!" I shout to all of my Pokemon, who each reach out to touch me. As soon as they all make contact, I close my eyes and focus my magic in preparation for a teleport as I focus on a specific location. A few moments after that, and we blink away in a flash of blue and leave our now blinded assailants behind.

"Did it… work?" I ask myself, cracking open an eye to look around myself. Surely enough, we're back at the entrance to Nacrene City, just behind some trees of Route 3. "Whew, that was close. That was some real quick thinking, you two. Thanks for the save." I sigh, praising the two newly evolved Grass Types once I get a hold of my bearings.

"O-oh! No problem, Sir." Lily replies, while Dani nods as she hears me thank her. "Yeah, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off if you hadn't had those Sun Stones on you. Where did you get those, anyway?" Dani questions me as soon as she accepts my gratitude, making me frown as I try to recall just how we had obtained them. However, I quickly cough some more before falling down.

"Jay!" The team all gasp and rush to my side, as I clutch my torso and breathe heavily. "Hold on everyone, I need to look at the damage." I groan, before shakily reaching up to pull the zipper of my hoodie down. Even moving hurts like hell, the pain only intensifying in magnitude with every move I make.

Before I can reach my zipper however, Safia quickly grabs a hold of my zipper and tries to pull it down. "Damn it, how does this thing even work!?" The Zoroark growls in rushed irritation as she struggles in her haste and makes me chuckle. I immediately regret doing that, as pain shoots through my chest and makes me hack up more blood after I laugh weakly.

"This isn't funny, Jay!" Safia snaps, turning to me and allowing me to notice the sheer degree of worry in her eyes, as well as the tearful concern stemming from everyone else. "Right, right. Just grab the top of my hoodie and pull the small metal thing down gently. Don't rush it, or it'll take longer." I explain to the lupine, who nods as she manages to unzip my hoodie.

"Shit, this hurts..." I wince in pain, feeling the damage that Jimmy had inflicted on me in full effect. Blood is oozing through my shirt, having stained my hoodie a deep crimson. My leg's definitely seen better days, as I can see bone peeking out through the wound in it. This isn't good. At this rate, I'll bleed out before we get to the Pokemon Center. I need to figure out how to stop the bleeding, fast.

"Oh, no! What do we do!?" Chell panics, the Dewott unable to calm down as she begins to freak out. "We must act soon. Jay is losing too much blood." Katrina observes, Alita growling at the Liepard's words. "Yeah, no shit! We gotta do something to close those holes up, now!" The Unfezant shouts, which gets Cleo to growl at the Flying Type.

"Well, yer darned shoutin' ain't gonna help out! Why don't ya shut yer pie hole fer a minute an' think!?" The Flaafy retorts, which makes Alita glare venomously at the Electric Type. "And you're not helping at all, fluff ball!" The Unfezant growls, getting both Pokemon to butt heads in rage.

"Please don't fight! Mister Jay's hurting really bad, and we need to help him!" Chell cries out, waving her arms about as she tries to get her teammates to stop fighting. "Stop fighting. You are not helping." Nesia informs the two pissed Pokemon, while Katrina nods in agreement to the Servine's words. Meanwhile, Lily cradles her head in her hands and sobs uncontrollably. I wish I could comfort her...

"Your shouting will not assist Jay in closing his wounds." The Liepard points out, an annoyed look lining her features. "Please, don't shout at each other!" Nova begs the fighting Pokemon, trying to calm them down. "Yeah, you guys. We seriously need to help Jay first, or else he'll be in big trouble." Dani groans as she watches the two scream at each other, not finding them helpful in the least.

"Alright, fine." Both of the fighting Pokemon sigh after a few seconds of glaring at each other, turning away in the opposite direction of the other's presence soon after. "Jeez, can't a guy bleed out in peace over here?" I chuckle sarcastically, while Leah's eyes widen as she holds a paw over my chest.

"Jay, your aura is getting weaker!" The jackal informs me, to which I look to her with a raised eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask her, getting Leah to look to me with an expression of concern. "It means you will die if we don't treat you soon!" The Lucario shouts, getting the attention of the team and causing them to look at me in worry as soon as the word die is mentioned.

"Well, that's not good." I mutter, before remembering something from my bag. "Safia, I need you to look inside the smallest area of my bag. There should be something in there that can help, and it has a red cross on it." I groan, finding myself growing weaker as I tell her to do so.

"Right, I hear ya." The Zoroark nods, urgently taking off my backpack and rummaging through the smallest zipped up section. "Is this it?" Safia asks me, quickly showing me the first aid kit I had in my bag. Nodding with what little energy I have, I gesture to the latch on the small box.

"Yeah, that's the right one. Now, I need you to open it. Look for a roll of gauze that's shaped like… urgh… like this." I tell her and make a circle with my hand, to which she nods as she begins to look for a way to open the box. However, she doesn't seem to be able to figure it out.

"Damn it, how do I open this thing!?" The lupine growls, at a loss for what to do. As she's in the middle of figuring it out however, it's quickly snatched away by a vine. "Nesia!? What the fuck are you doing!?" Alita yells in shock and anger, assuming that she was interrupting the process. "What the hell, we need that!" Safia begins to shout at the Servine, before she's handed the item I was asking for.

"Here it is. It's the only item in the box that fits Husband's description." Nesia tells the lupine as she gives her the roll of gauze, who looks to me for confirmation. "Yeah, she's right. Nice work, Ness." I chuckle, giving her a thumbs up before I cough up some more blood and immediately feel my arm weakly fall limp beside me. I can already begin to taste blood in my mouth which isn't a good sign.

"Shit, I don't have much time." I grunt, before looking up at Safia and Leah, who are closest to me. "Listen, I need you to take the rubbing alcohol from that kit and pour it over my wounds. Then, I'll need you to wrap my leg and chest tight with the gauze, so that blood won't seep through the holes as quickly." I explain to them, before looking to Dani.

"Dani, I'll need you to cover my wounds up with cotton as soon as we're done pouring that alcohol over them." I tell the Whimsicott, who nods as she floats over to my side. "Right." She nods quickly, already looking quite queasy at the sight of so much blood leaking from my wounds.

"I have the alcohol here, Jay." Katrina informs me, having been handed the bottle of liquid by Nesia as she nears me with it. "Okay, get the top off and pour some of it over places where blood is leaking out." I tell the Liepard, who nods as she cautiously tips the bottle over my leg first.

"Urgh!" I yells, clenching my teeth to muffle my scream of agony as the disinfectant hits my open wound. God, that stings like a bitch! Katrina is shocked by the sudden shout, stopping her pouring of the alcohol. "Mister Jay, are you okay!?" Chell gasps as soon as she hears me shout, which gets me to grimace as I nod her way.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just that that stuff seriously hurts." I hiss, my nails digging into my skin as I try to fight the pain. Seriously, it's like someone put a branding iron to my lower leg! "Okay, Dani. Cover my leg wound up, now." I tell the Whimsicott, who nods as she quickly aims her Cotton Spore at the bullet holes, covering them up.

"Good. Leah, wrap the gauze around my leg tight. Ness, help her out." I tell the Lucario and Servine, both nodding as they get to work. "Sir, please be okay..." I hear Lily sob pitifully beside me, making my heart ache upon hearing that I've hurt her emotionally. Dani looks up at me, allowing me to see the desperation in her eyes.

"Mister Jay, please. You can't die, you just can't..." Chell whimpers before her words break up into sobs once more, Nesia patting her friend on the back to comfort her the best she can. However, she looks to be a step away from crying herself. Katrina isn't looking much better, her tears already flowing as she looks to my downed form.

"Come on, Jay. You can't just die on us..." I hear Belladonna say in an almost pleading manner, while Alita looks away as she tries to hide the fact that she's crying freely now. Cleo can't help but let tears fall, and Nova doesn't seem to be faring any better. Well, all the more reason to not die.

"Trust me, girls. I won't leave you, ever." I grunt my assurance, before the feeling of alcohol against my exposed flesh tears another scream from my throat. "God, that hurt even more than the last one..." I groan, as Dani gums up my other wounds with cotton.

"Jay, we are done with wrapping your leg." Leah informs me, getting me to smile as I nod her way. "Thanks, Leah, Now, help lift me up. We need to get to the Pokemon Center as soon as possible, and get Taylor healed up. That, and I'll die if we don't hurry up." I tell them, already feeling myself fade away as my head get lighter and my eyelids get heavier.

"Now, let me rest. I don't feel… so good..." I mumble, struggling to stay awake as the team begins to panic beside me. Their cries of concern only seem to get further away, as I feel like my very Soul is leaving my body. Damn, not yet! Not like this! But there's nothing I can do, as blood loss and shock finally begin to claim my consciousness.

"Ask... Nurse Joy. She'll know… what to…" I can't even finish my sentence, my last words trailing off into a mumble before the world around me fades to black. My eyelids have become too heavy for me to keep open, as I feel myself fading away. I am barely able to register the fact that I am being lifted off of the ground, and onto the back of another body of furry warmth right now.

"You heard him! We have to… moving!" I hear Alita's voice, but she sounds so far away from me. I see black fur, and green scales, and leaves. "I got 'em! Let's go!" That was Safia, right? Her voice carries a tone of panic and concern, as I feel the body underneath me jostle up and down. As whoever is lifting me breaks into a sprint, I can't help but fall into unconsciousness. I feel… so light…

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Liligant)**

 **-Dani (Whimsicott)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	85. Chapter 83

Chapter 83

[Jay]

"Brother, I'm home!" Yupia's voice calls out to me, in it's usual spry and energetic self. "Oh, heya Sis. How was work?" I ask and wave to my sister, while I'm simply lazing off on the couch after another day of patrols around the border of our hometown.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, as usual. Sometimes, I wish that something new would happen. Something that isn't just seeing people past the border and letting them pass." My younger sister laments, making me shrug. Seeing my current lethargic state, Yupia crosses her arms as soon as she manages to take off her glasses and police hat.

"Jay, you should really stop lazing around on the couch so much and use your bed! You will ruin your already unhealthy standing posture!" She shouts as she glares my way, stamping her foot on the ground as she says so. "Eh, I couldn't mustard the strength." I chuckle, sipping on my bottle of ketchup while I say so.

"Jay! Stop making such terrible puns this instant!" Yupia doesn't get the fun in a bad joke, stamping her foot on the ground indignantly. "Calm down, Sis. Besides, I don't trust those stairs. I think they're up to something." I grin cheekily, adding one more pun to the pile as my sister groans in annoyance.

"Unbelievable! Why must you always be so lazy!?" Yupia shouts at me, to which I grin as I check her face. "C'mon, Sis. You're smiling." I chuckle in reply, seeing the small smile tugging at her lips. "It's a pity smile!" My sister retorts, before she hangs up her uniform on the nearby clothing rack.

"Did you have dinner already, Brother?" Yupia asks me, as she dons her apron and heads off into the kitchen. "Yeah, I did. I went over to Grillby's, so I'll be fine." I tell my taller sister, who sighs as I hear the sound of a pot being placed onto the stove.

"You shouldn't eat such greasy food! It isn't healthy!" She huffs, before sitting herself down on the couch with me. "Heh, I'll be fine. Thanks for worrying about me, though." I assure my sister, who sighs as she sits down next to me with a concerned look on her face as her anger melts away.

"I just… I just wish you would take better care of yourself, Jay. I worry for you." Yupia sighs, her voice now more soft and somber as she addresses me. In response to her concerns, I chuckle as I pat her on the shoulder. Which took me a lot of effort, seeing as I had to actually reach up from my sitting position to do so.

"Alright, I get it. I'll eat at Grillby's less often." I tell my sister, who looks to me with a reassured smile. "Thank you for understanding, Brother." Yupia replies, before she lets loose a sigh. "You know, I went to Grillby's to try and see if you were still drinking there." The white haired girl tells me, to which I raise an eyebrow in interest.

"Oh? I thought you hated places with grease." I smirk teasingly at her, making her frown as she crosses her arms. "Well, it was a necessary evil! You could have still been in there!" She retorts, before she returns to telling me what she was doing before she got home.

"I tried talking to everyone in the bar, seeing as how you are there so often. Everyone was really nice, and they told me you had left for the house." Yupia tells me, before her expression turns sad as her gaze grows distant. Hmm, she seems pretty sad about something.

"However, everyone didn't seem as happy as when I see you with them. On top of that, they always say goodbye to you when you leave. I didn't hear them say goodbye to me, though. They seem to be like very close friends to you." Yupia sighs, her tone now quite upset as she looks to me with a dejected expression.

"Sis, it's okay. No one becomes your friend after the first meet up, ya know." I chuckle, as said girl looks to me with a look of slight envy. "Jay, what is it like to have so many friends? Do they like eating your food? Do they think you're cool?" My sister asks me, to which I don't hesitate for a single second while I move my hand and place it atop her shoulder.

"You wanna know what it's like to have many friends?" I ask Yupia, who nods as she looks to me for my answer. "It's nothing like having the world's greatest sister with me every day." I finish, Yupia's eyes tearing up with joy and happiness as she hears me say that. Not even a second later, she quickly reaches out both of her arms to wrap me in a tight hug.

"Jay…!" My sister sniffs, touched by my words as her tears soak my hoodie. In response to her sobs, I gently wrap my arms around her back as she buries her face into my chest. "Hey, now. Don't cry, alright? You know I hate it when you cry." I smile, patting her back comfortingly as I wait for her to calm down.

"I'm very sorry, Brother. It's just that… I am very happy that you think of me that way." My sister tells me, a smile on her face as she says so. "Yeah, well you are the coolest and the greatest sister I know. What would I have expected from you that isn't greatness?" I chuckle, getting her to puff out her chest in pride.

"But of course! I am very cool, and I am very great after all." She boasts, to which I grin wryly with a shake of my head. Yup, still the same old Yupia I know and love. "Which is why I'm sure you'll make lots of good friends. You just need to talk to 'em more, that's all." I assure the taller girl beside me, who nods as she hears me out.

"I suppose you're right, Jay. If I converse with them, they will eventually become enamored with my greatness!" She proclaims with confidence, before she decides to lean into me. Well, onto me would be a more accurate statement. She's taller than me, so her head ends up resting atop mine as she snuggles up to me. Her average bust does end up being pushed against my cheek, not that I mind...

"Still, I must thank you for saying such kind words Brother." Yupia says to me softly, as she snuggles her cheek into my head more. In response, I simply smile as I feel her ministrations. "Anytime, sis. Anytime." I tell her, as we simply sit there and enjoy the presence of the other nearby. However, I soon feel the urge to close my eyes. Unable to resist, I comply with my body's needs and l let sleep take me.

"Wake up!" I suddenly hear a voice call out in my ear, which makes me bolt awake with a start. "What the hell, sis? You didn't have to shout in my ear, ya know." I speak aloud, rubbing my eyes to get rid of the weariness in them, but I open them to find my sister nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell is this? Where the hell is this?" I mutter to myself, finding myself in a dark void with nothing around me. I'm currently floating right now, unable to figure out what any of this is. Okay, so pitch black all around me. Not really helpful, but I guess I could wake up to something worse. Like twerking Kardashians, ugh.

"Gee, thanks for the mental imagery, brain." I groan, sighing as I try to force the mental image down into the deepest recesses of my mind. Okay, now that was something I didn't need to see. "Jay, please wake up!" I suddenly hear again, but the voice sounds… different. As soon as I try to listen in to figure out who's talking however, I feel a sharp pain in my chest and leg.

"Ow! The fuck!?" I hiss, before flashes of memory come back to me. The encounter, the rings that sapped my power, and the gunshots that sunk themselves into my torso, courtesy of Jimmy. Fucking asshole. I do remember urging the team to get me to the PokeCenter before I blacked out, though.

"Oh, right, That happened." I deadpan to myself, as the dark void is suddenly filled with the sound of a long and annoyed sigh. God, how could I have forgotten about that!? But, that just leaves me with one important question. Did I live, or did I die? Did I even get to the Pokemon Center in time? Is this… what death feels like? It's actually kinda warmer than I was expecting it to be.

As soon as I crack open an eye however, I see that Chell and Nesia, as well as Alita and Belladonna have all made themselves at home on top of my chest. Oh. That's why it's so warm. And to top off the fact that I'm wrapped up in bandages, and being covered in a blanket? God, it's getting really hot in here. Everyone else is simply looking away from me, simply waiting for me to wake up.

"Heya, everyone." I rasp, finding my voice to be much weaker than I'd like it to be due to my dry throat. Seriously, it feels like a desert in there! "Mister Jay, you're awake! Thank goodness!" Chell gasps, getting the attention of everyone else. The team all look to me at once, their faces softening in relief as they see that I am indeed conscious once more.

"Are you thirsty, Sir?" Lily asks me, the Liligant holding a glass of water in her appendages as she nears my bedside. The water shimmers in the light that the window provides, the sun now coloring the clouds a nice orange hue. "Thanks, Lily." I nod to the Grass Type, reaching out a hand to hold the glass. Now that I look at my arm, I realize it's connected to an IV drip.

"So, how long was I out?" I ask the Pokemon around me, Nesia looking to me with her usual emotionless face. "Two days." The Servine says, making me frown as I realize that I haven't moved, eaten or taken a shower in two days. "Yeah. You were unconscious for two whole days, Jay." Leah nods to affirm Nesia's words, Nova looking me in the eyes as they tell me that.

"Are you feeling alright, Jay?" The Volcarona asks me, getting me to smile and nod. "Yeah, I'm good. Are you alright?" I ask the Fire Moth, reaching up to touch her face gently as she cries. Pain shoots through me once I move my torso, which gets me to wince.

"I'm fine, Jay. But your injuries are really serious. All this time, we were worried that you wouldn't make it..." Nova trails off into a sob, her tears staining my hand and getting me to rub her cheek gently to try and comfort her. "Nah, I wouldn't do that to you. How have you all been?" I ask everyone present, expecting them to answer. However, I didn't expect what happened next.

"Wah, Mister Jay!" I suddenly hear Chell's voice, the Dewott hugging me tighter and sobbing. "Woah, kiddo!" I yelp, having been shocked by the sudden force of how she had hugged my chest like she did. Meanwhile, Safia, Alita and Cleo look like they're about to explode with anger.

"After almost dying and being knocked out for two days, that's all you have to say!? You had us worried sick, Jay!" Safia shouts at me, catching me by surprise. "I was so scared, Mister Jay! I thought you were really gonna die, and I wasn't gonna see you again!" Chell cries into my pant leg, just as Alita slaps me upside the head.

"You fucking idiot, you almost died! Why'd you say those things to that prick and make him hurt you like that, huh!?" Alita shouts at me, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "Woah, calm down Ali. It's okay, I'm fine. See?" I chuckle, her glare not wavering as she looks down at me.

"No, you aren't fine at all! You could have been hurt in far worse ways, Jay! We were worried sick when you were resting here!" Leah adds, the Lucario slapping me for good emphasis as she looks me over with a teary look of concern and hurt. In response, I shake my head and look to the team.

"It's fine, I'll heal. I was working on a plan to get us outta there, but I couldn't let him hurt you in the meantime. What kinda asshole leaves his team to suffer for his mistakes, huh?" I reply, smiling to comfort them. However, a certain Flaafy wasn't having any of my crap this time around.

"Consarn it Jay, yer dumb as a box a' rocks! What if ya ended up deader than a doorknob, huh!? Ya coulda died back there, and there was nothin' any of us could do fer ya!" Cleo shouts at me as she tears up, the Flaafy looking pissed as she reasons with me.

"But Cleo, you couldn't have broken out of your restraints. None of you could have." I remind the Flaafy, who shakes her head in anger before looking at me. "That's not what Ah'm gettin' at here! What Ah'm tryin' ta say is that yer bein' really damn stupid!" Cleo shouts at me, making me flinch at her harsh use of words. She's never actively swore at me before, so this has to be serious.

"That's it. Ah ain't gonna try an' reason with ya no more." The Electric Type growls, promptly leaving the hospital ward and going into the hallway. "Cleo, wait!" I call out after the Flaafy, but my words fall on deaf ears as I hear her footsteps get further and further away.

"I appreciate the notion Jay, however I agree that you should not have attempted to protect us like you did. We are Pokemon, and can receive more damage than humans." Katrina protests, the Liepard's tail curling around my arm as I hear her out. As I look to her, I see that she's letting twin streams of tears fall from her eyes. "Husband, you are unbelievable." Nesia chokes, as I turn to see her cry.

"Jay, you damn idiot! We can take care of ourselves, because we're Pokemon! We can take hits, and kick ass ourselves without you jumping in the way! So stop acting like a goddamn hero!" Dani yells at me, her face contorted into one of anger.

"Jay, you dumbass! You could have really died back there if Dani and Lily didn't do what they did!" Belladonna cries, tearing up as she recalls how I got hurt. Meanwhile, Safia simply walks over to me and grabs me by the shoulders, her glare hot enough to melt through steel.

"Well we didn't ask you to put yourself on the line like that, you moron! What you did was so fucking dumb, especially right after you told me… that!" Safia shouts at me, having finally let loose her own anger in regard to my actions. Even Nova and Lily look like they're agreeing with their teary eyed expressions, having not said a word since Chell had started the waterworks.

At that moment, I finally realize what an idiot I've been. If I was so so damn worried about the girls, why didn't I think about how my actions to try and protect them would affect them? I just threw myself into danger again and again, without even caring for how they much they cared for me. In an attempt to apologize, I painfully get out of bed and prostrate myself before them.

"Damn it, you're all right. I've been so selfish, I didn't even think about how it would affect all of you. I kept thinking about making you girls happy, but I just kept making you worry about me over and over again. I'm so sorry for making you all hurt so bad inside, everyone." I apologize, too guilty to lift my head to face them as I berate myself for acting so foolishly.

"It's okay, Mister Jay! You don't have to say sorry like this!" Chell speaks up as she runs over, the Dewott using her paw to pat my grounded head in concern as she tries to comfort me. "I don't think I could be forgiven that easy, though." I mutter honestly, my face not willing to lift itself from the ground due to my own shame and guilt.

"Like Chell said. We forgive you, so stop." Nesia seconds the notion, the Servine snaking her vines under my own chin and gently urging my head up. Not one to object, my head follows where she's leading it. "Husband, just knowing you'd risk your life for me... makes me happy." The Grass starter smiles slightly as she finishes her sentence, her face flushed as her brown orbs meet my blue ones.

"We are all very flattered that you would throw yourself into danger for our sake, Jay. But, could you try not to do that as often? As your mate, I fret over your safety, too." Katrina informs me, her face contorted into a cute pout as she addresses me. In response, I gently scratch her head and hear happy purring coming from her.

"Alright, I get it." I chuckle, as Alita huffs upon hearing me say that. "You'd better get it, you idiot! Stop making us worry about you so much!" The Unfezant tells me off, equally concerned for my well being and angered at my decision while Safia approaches me.

"Seriously, Jay. After all you've said and done for us, you don't expect us to even want to return the favor? You don't have the shoulder the responsibility of keeping us safe all by yourself, you know. We can kinda do it ourselves." Safia chuckles, a wry grin on her face as she looks my way.

"Safia is right, Jay. You trained us to be stronger, remember? I'm quite sure we'll be able to defend ourselves from any other threats. Not to mention, I'd be really unsatisfied if you didn't let me repay you somehow." Leah speaks up, the Lucario crossing her arms as she frowns my way.

"Jay, you moron. We'll still be here to help you, no matter how bad it gets. Besides, you trained us to fight remember? Just let us take care of ourselves." Dani speaks up with a wry grin of her own, getting Lily to approach me with a determined expression.

"Don't worry, Sir! I'll make sure to get even stronger that I am right now, so you'll never have to worry about me again! I'll make sure to be strong enough to protect everyone, including you!" The Liligant assures me, her resolve unwavering as she requests that I place my trust in her.

"You don't have to do everything, dumbass. We'll be fine, so you don't have to keep worrying about us." Belladonna nods to me, providing reassurance as Nova floats over to me. "I agree with everyone here, Jay. Even though I'm not strong yet, I promise I'll be strong enough so I can protect myself as well as you." The Volcarona replies, to which I get up and wipe the tears from my eyes.

"Damn it, everyone. You're making me cry all over again…!" I sniff, grinning like an idiot as twin streaks of tears flow down my cheeks. What kind of saint was I in my past life, to even have the chance to deserve so many supportive and awesome Pokemon by my side?

"However, I have to admit that I felt very happy when you tackled Jimmy to protect me earlier..." The Fire Moth admits, her cheeks now flushing a pinkish tint as she says so. "Is that so? Well, glad I made you happy." I chuckle, rubbing the Volcarona's horns to show my affection. Nova sighs and melts into my touches for a moment, before realizing that everyone else is watching us.

"Jay, please! Not in front of everyone else, it's embarrassing!" Nova squeaks, her blush not helping to hide her happiness and flustered state in the slightest. "Alright, sure. Maybe we can cuddle later, then." I suggest, the Fire Moth blushing brighter as she hears me out.

"Really? I would love that!" She replies as she forgets her own observation of the presence of everyone else, her excited answer causing Safia to smirk at the Volcarona. "Ohh, someone else seems to have fallen in love with Jay!" The Zoroark chuckles in a teasing manner, making Nova yelp in embarrassment.

"L-love!? I'm not s-so sure of t-that…!" Nova stutters, wasting not time in averting her gaze from Safia. "Yay! Jay's getting more mates to join us, Ness!" Chell cheers as she eyes the conversation, Nesia smiling as she looks to the flustered Volcarona.

"I think Nova shall be a good wife for Husband." The Servine says simply, which makes the air around Nova almost seem to heat up a few more degrees as the Fire Moth Pokemon's face continues to heat up in embarrassment. Soon she can't take much more, and turns away to hide her flustered look. Wasn't Nesia jealous of me having more girls to myself? Man, she sure changes tune fast.

"I know Husband won't change his mind about it, either." Nesia finishes, getting me to sigh. So that's why she's going with it. Well, I guess her point remains valid. "Oh my god, Nova! That reaction is priceless!" Dani laughs aloud, the Whimsicott only causing Nova's discomfort to grow.

"Alright, you guys. Quit teasing her, I'm seeing more red than gray right now." I chuckle, trying to diffuse the situation and save the Fire Moth from the teasing of the team's cheekier members. "Jay, you must realize that teasing anyone about their romantic interests is simply too alluring to resist." Katrina giggles as she slinks over, watching Nova get grilled from afar with a smile.

"Kat, you guys seriously take the idea too far. Seriously, Nova looks like she's gonna overheat." I sigh, before using my hand to stop the feline's tail near my bedside. The appendage had been in my bag for a little while, causing me to raise an eyebrow at the now pouting Liepard. "You are such a buzzkill, Jay." She huffs, which earns her a chuckle as I pat her head.

"And Safia, you were pretty worried about me too. You sure you don't feel anything for me?" I tease the Zoroark in kind with a cheeky grin of my own, getting the lupine to stare at me in surprise as her face flushes a little. However, she quickly smirks to hide her own embarrassment.

"Yeah, right. You may like me, but I never said I wanted a part of this whole harem thing of yours." She retorts, smirking triumphantly at me as she assumes that I've got nothing left to pin her down on. "But you're blushing, Safia. You sure about that?" I chuckle, raising an eyebrow and causing the Zoroark to freeze.

"No, you're just seeing things!" The lupine denies the notion, to which I respond with a shrug. "Don't worry, I'm not just some prick playboy. I swear that I'll love you just as much as I love these three if you join." I assure the Illusion Pokemon, who grins wryly in light of my words. "As if! You're always flirting with everyone else so hard, Jay." Safia laughs, slugging my arm. However, her blush still stays.

"Don't worry, Safia! Mister Jay really loves all of us equally!" Chell assures the Zoroark, while Nesia sighs as she looks to me. "You're such a horndog, Husband. Already trying to seduce more women to love you." The Servine stares at me disapprovingly, to which I grin and pat her head.

"Don't worry your pretty little head off, Ness. I'll be sure to love you just as much as I did before Safia joined in." I assure the Servine, who nods with a small smile. "As long as you do." She reminds me, while Katrina simply nods as she hears me out.

"Oh, yeah. I didn't really answer your question about the Evolution Stones, right Dani?" I remember aloud, Dani raising an eyebrow as she turns to me. "Yeah. I'm kinda surprised you remembered that, actually." The Whimsicott nods in realization, now searching my own gaze for an answer as Lily looks over, also a mite interested in figuring out where I had gotten those stones.

"That had happened when the two of you were knocked out. I had helped out a Durant colony because some kids wanted me to, so the Durant queen rewarded me with some Evolution stones." I explain, the newer members of the team looking at me with surprise.

"That was quite nice of the queen to do that." Nova comments, making me nod in agreement. "Human children asked you to rid the Durant of their problem?" Leah repeats that last bit in surprise, to which I nod. "Yeah. Kids do tend to have bleeding hearts when it comes to Pokemon, 'cause they're so innocent." I tell her, which suddenly causes the Lucario's face to pale.

"Human children will bleed from their hearts when they consider Pokemon!?" Leah gasps, making me laugh aloud at the way she had literally interpreted that statement. "Heh, of course not. Don't take what I say so literally, okay? If that was the case, I'd have died a long time ago. I'm still technically a kid, ya know." I chuckle, patting the jackal atop her head and causing her to blush in embarrassment.

"That was really nice of her to do that!" Lily comments, which gets me to nod in agreement. "I know, right? She could have used the energy of those stones to fuel the growth of her developing brood, but she was nice enough to hand them over to me. Kat didn't really show that she was grateful, with her throwing around some of their eggs and all..." I sigh, getting the attention of the Liepard in question.

"But Jay, messing with their property was simply too alluring to resist." The feline defends herself, making me narrow my eyes playfully and poke her cheek. "Of course it was. You don't find toying with me satisfying enough anymore, so you take it out on Pokemon that needed our help." I sigh, Katrina pouting as she hear me say that.

"Why are you making your beloved mate sound like the villain in this scenario, Jay?" The feline huffs, getting me to scratch her head. "Beloved mate or no, you were the villain of that bit. I was just stating facts, Kat. Don't be mad about it, though." I remind her, the Liepard smiling as she purrs upon feeling my ministrations.

"Why, I could never stay mad at you, good sir!" The Liepard giggles in reply, causing me to grin as I pat her head once more. "And I could never really hate you for anything, either. You're just too lovable for that to happen." I chuckle, as Katrina curls her tail around my hand to hold it lovingly.

"Well, I can't say I expected a Durant Queen to hand ya those Stones." Safia speaks up, Belladonna looking my way with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure about that, Jay? Sounds a little over the top to be true, to be honest." The Venipede speaks up, making me look her with a deadpan stare.

"I've literally shown you that I can kill gods, and I can use magic like you can. I don't think me getting rewarded by a Durant Queen could top that." I remind the Bug Type with a wry grin, who mulls it over a bit before nodding in resignation. "Yeah, I guess so." She finally says, Safia smirking as she pats me on the shoulder.

"You got those from a Queen? I have to admit, that's pretty cool." The Zoroark grins, while Dani simply does nothing save for her staring at the ground. "Dani, what's up?" I ask the Grass and Fairy Type, who sighs as she look up at me for a bit.

"I couldn't save you, even after I evolved." Dani mumbles with a sad smile, to which I sigh as I gently grab a hold of her cotton coat and lift her to my own gaze. "Listen, Dani. You did more than enough when you kicked that Seismitoad's ass. You couldn't have done much of anything, because you were too tired from the fight." I tell her, before gesturing to her.

"You did great when you fought. Hell, I already said I was proud of you. So don't let something like that get to your head, ya silly. No matter how many times you lose or can't protect the others, the team and I will be there to back you up. Besides, I would've thought of something else if you hadn't done that." I tell Dani what I had told her once more, which gets her to smile in reply.

"Alright, I get it. Thanks for having my back, ya weirdo." Dani chuckles, making me sigh and smirk as I poke her cheek in response. "Also, I was kinda worried that you and Lily would bolt after I gave you the stones. You Whimsicott don't exactly have the best reputation for staying with Trainers after you get your Sun Stone, you know." I add, Dani shaking her head in light of that comment.

"Are you kidding? You've said and done too much for me to leave you, anyways. I wouldn't have left if you asked me to." The Whimsicott retorts, frowning as she expresses hurt towards my accusation. "I wouldn't have left either, Sir!" Lily pouts, crossing her newly acquired arms to accentuate her point.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that I got you to stay. I care too much about you two to just leave it there, and things honestly wouldn't be the same of you and Lily just up and left." I admit, patting both of their heads and causing both Grass Types to sport mild blushes on their faces.

"Hello? Mister Williamson?" I suddenly hear a voice call out to me from the door, to which I turn to see an Audino holding a clipboard watching our touching moment. "Yeah, that's me. What is it?" I ask the Healing Pokemon, who gives me a gentle smile as she approaches my bedside.

"I just came here to check up on you as requested by Nurse Joy, but it seems that you're already up and about. Quite a fast recovery, if I do say so myself." The Audino comments, making me chuckle. "I can't tell if that was a compliment or not, but I'll take it. So, can I walk now?" I ask the Nurse's assistant, who looks to her clipboard before nodding.

"I believe so. Your leg should be healed now, thanks to the medicinal pastes and the Healing Acceleration Treatments. As soon as you feel like it, you can head on over to the cafeteria and get something to eat. That drip's been keeping you nourished for two days, but you must be feeling hungry!" The Audino suggests, to which I nod as I hear my growling stomach.

"I feel hungry, alright." I grin, making the Audino giggle as she hears my stomach's approval of the prospect of food. "I can tell! Also, I should inform you that your Pokemon haven't eaten much since you fell into your sleep. Well, I have other patients to be checking up on, so I will be off now. Have a nice day, Mr. Williamson." The Audino replies, leaving the premises after a polite bow.

"Alright, you girls stay here for a minute. I have a Flaafy to apologize to." I tell the team, before walking into a nearby closet in the hospital room. Trying to find Cleo wasn't too hard, as I simply needed to track her Soul's whereabouts before I teleport away to her position. She's sitting alone on the grass, staring out into the night sky and the forest beyond.

"Cleo?" I call out to the Flaafy sitting on the grass outside the Pokemon Center, who jumps a little before she realizes who it is. "Go away, Jay. Ah have no intention of talkin' to ya." She replies after some silence, which serves to only cause me to approach her even more.

"It's still pretty cold out here, Cleo. You could catch a cold." I tell the Flaafy, who says nothing as she continues to look away. "Well, alright. I just came here to say… that I'm really sorry for making you worry about me like that. I realize that what I did was really freaking stupid, and I'm sorry." I continue, my voice only bringing about more silence as I get ignored.

"Well, here. You should at least take this, or else you'll catch a cold." I sigh as I take off my hoodie and drape it over her form, before turning to walk away. However, I get interrupted by the feeling of a small form hugging my leg just as I reach the door.

"Cleo?" I ask the Pokemon hugging me, who proceeds to bury her head into my leg. "Jay, ya coulda died. An' you didn't even seem that worried." Cleo sniffs, to which I kneel down and hug her gently to comfort her. "No, I was worried. Worried about all of you." I reply, making the Electric Sheep Pokemon look up at me.

"Ah'm sorry 'bout gettin' mad at ya earlier, Jay. You were tryin' ta help us, and Ah just blamed ya fer it. Losin' didn't feel all that good, ya know?" Cleo sniffs, getting me to nod in understanding. "Yeah, I get ya. Losing sucks, but we can learn from losses, and get stronger together. What do you say?" I tell the Flaafy, who smiles up at me as she wipes her eyes.

"Sure thing, Jay." Cleo nods up at me, getting me to ruffle her head gently and chuckle. "Sorry I made you cry, Cleo." I apologize to the Electric Type, who shakes her head. "Nah, it's okay. Thanks fer comin' out here ta find me, Jay." She replies, making me smile as I throw my coat back onto myself.

"No worries. I couldn't leave my cute country gal out here alone, right? Now, hold up. I know a shortcut back." I grin, as I sweep the Flaafy off her feet and stand up. "Uh, right." Cleo blushes as she rests in my arms, getting me to chuckle and snap my fingers to teleport us back into the closet.

"Alright, we're back. You can open your eyes now, Cleo." I chuckle, seeing Cleo still keeping her eyes shut tight once I see that we're back in the very same closet I teleported out of. I push open the doors, greeted by the sight of a group of Pokemon with Katrina in the middle of it all.

"Uh, girls? What's with the looks?" I ask them, to which Katrina simply smirks knowingly as she walks away from the hospital ward. "We'll tell you on the way, Jay." Safia replies dismissively, everyone else following suit as I raise an eyebrow. "Seriously, what the hell happened while I was gone!?" I ask Katrina, my question getting ignored.

 **[Unknown]**

"God damn it, of course he'd go and mess it up. Why the hell did the little shit even decide to do that, anyways?" I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose as I think back to when Jimmy had decided to shoot 5AN-5 in the stomach. Little fucking prick on his stupid high horse, thinking he's so much better than the rest of us…

"Well, should report this anyways. He won't be too happy about it, though." I grunt, tapping a finger to the communicator on my ear. After a few seconds of silence, I hear the voice of Giovanni come through on the other side.

"Hello again. How is our dear subject faring?" As expected, his smooth voice rings out from the other side of the earpiece, getting me to roll my eyes as I look through my binoculars at the wandering kid and his team of Pokemon. God, doing this and dealing with the boss is so damn tiring.

"Well, Jimmy had 'em on the ropes. But he somehow let 'em get away when he got carried away trying to fuck one of the Pokemon. On top of that, Jack just trashed another one of our bases." I sigh, as the man on the other end suddenly grows silent. After a while, I hear his growl and the sound of glass shattering on the floor.

"What's that matter, Gio? Can't hold your drinks anymore?" I tease the annoyed Team Rocket leader, who sighs in reply. "Silence, Ross. I'm trying to think." The man growls, his voice allowing me to almost feel his frustration for myself. After a pregnant pause, he speaks up again.

"Very well, then. Ross, apprehend our little subject by any means necessary. We shall deal with Jack later." Giovanni tells me, to which I smile. Finally, something actually fun to do. "Sure thing, boss. I'll have the kid delivered to your doorstep by tomorrow." I assure the man on the other end, before I put away my binoculars.

"Oh, and Gio? No offense, but the kid's seriously overdue a spanking." I smirk as I tell the Rocket leader, who chuckles at the suggestion. "Well, I may actually consider your opinion on the matter, Ross. Have a good day." Giovanni laughs, before he hangs up and leaves me to my own devices. Well, then. Better start planning, 'cause I got a kid to snag...

 **Author's Note:**

 **Heya, everyone! Really sorry I couldn't get back to you for the past two weeks, I had three exams this week that only finished on Saturday. Freaking Saturday! Fucking professors really love to shit on my free time, huh? Anyways, your pal Roccer is back baby! Whoo!**

Jay: And we're gonna be working on regular time now, so we'll get chapters out in a timely manner. Heh.

 **Jay, no. Enough puns outta you, ya freaking troll. Now, get back to where you're from. Your team's wondering where you and your big mouth went. Especially Kat, she's got something planned-**

Katrina: You called, Jay?

Jay: Uh, Kat? What's with that domanatrix get up? Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Katrina: Well, I have decided to punish you for being so reckless earlier. Perhaps a round of bondage and whipping, with a side of orgasm denial?

 **Yeah, she looks like she means business, dude. She's even got a riding crop and everything.**

Jay: Kat, wait. Can't we talk about this for a second?

Katrina: I'm afraid not, Master. For you to fully understand the pain we went through, you must be thoroughly punished. Now, come here... *cracks whip*

Jay: Wait- Hey! How the hell was I tied up so fast!? And a magic nullifying collar, too!?

 **Author powers, bitch. Read it and weep. Now, all yours, Kat.**

Jay: Wait, please! Have mercy, Kat! I'm begging y-mmph!

Katrina: Now, no one will hear you scream with that ball gag in your mouth while I punish you. Thank you, Roccer. See you soon.

Jay: NNMMM! *dragged off into a room*

 **Welp, there's that. See ya'll again next week, same time and same place!**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Liligant)**

 **-Dani (Whimsicott)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	86. Chapter 84

Chapter 84

[Jay]

"Did you seriously tell them about that?" I groan, a blush now on my face as Katrina slinks alongside me, a triumphant grin across her face as she holds my hand with her tail. "Indeed I did, Jay. Every little detail. Consider it vengeance, for labeling me as the villain of our little Durant encounter." The feline grins cheekily, to which I sigh.

"Seriously, she told us everything. How big you were, how much you came inside her, how long you fucked her for..." Safia lists out the things that were mentioned during my absence with a teasing grin of her own, causing Cleo to blush deeply as well.

"Well, at least Ah know what you were up ta that night." Cleo comments, trying to avoid the conversation topic being discussed. "Husband was such an animal..." Nesia tells me, blushing deeply as she looks to me with a slightly fearful expression. "Uh, Ness? I won't do that to you unless you ask me to." I assure the Servine, who doesn't seem convinced in the slightest.

"And I did not need to hear any of that at all." Dani groans, a little too preoccupied with being flustered at my recent sexual pursuits to comment about much else. "Ugh, you're such a pervert!" Alita yells at me, smacking me atop the head with her free wing.

"And how is this my fault!?" I yelp, rubbing the back of my head in pain as that particular slap was harder than usual. "It just is, you pervert!" The Unfezant yells, huffing as she turns her head away from me. Wonder what she's so worked up about?

"Oh my god, why? They already knew about us, Kat. There was no need for details, like at all." I groan, now thoroughly embarrassed as I try to hide my growing blush with the hem of my hoodie. "I dunno, Jay. She made you sound like quite the stud, you know." The Zoroark adds, a light blush coloring her cheeks as she pokes fun at me.

"Master, I was simply praising you for your excellent sexual prowess. You should be proud that you managed to pleasure me so incredibly." The feline responds with a faked innocent smile, further increasing my exasperation. Everyone else doesn't say much, being too flustered for that sort of talk.

"Kat, you're so evil..." I frown, as Chell timidly pulls the leg of my pants to get my attention. "Hmm? What's up, Chell?" I ask the Dewott as I take out my ketchup bottle and take a sip, glad to have another topic to think about aside from the horrific event of what Katrina had spilled to the team.

"Did Katrina make you feel good? She said she felt really good, so did you feel good too?" Chell asks me, her question making my eyes bug out out of my sockets and almost making me choke on the ketchup in my throat. Coughing for a little bit, I straighten myself and turn to face the Dewott.

"Kiddo, you really shouldn't ask me those kinds of questions. Katrina may be fine with sharing her secrets, but I'm not." I tell the curious Pokemon, who responds by looking at me with a determined stare. "Chell? What's the matter this time?" I ask the Dewott, not expecting the sudden change in demeanor.

"Mister Jay, I really wanna know 'cause I'm your wife now. I wanna know how to make you happy, any way that I can. I don't want you to love me less, either! So please, tell me how she made you feel good!" Chell pleads with me, her desperate expression now quite heartbreaking as she basically asks me how to have sex with me. In response, I sigh and place a hand on her head.

"Listen, Chell. I would never love you less because of that. If I did, then that wouldn't be real love. Take your time, and you'll figure out how to make me feel good when you're ready. I'd rather love you for you, because you're perfect to me." I assure the Water Type, who nods happily at my comforting words.

"Thanks, Mister Jay." The Dewott smiles, making me chuckle as I lean in to plant a kiss on her cheek. "No worries, kiddo." I reply, my kiss and subsequent head pats making the Dewott giggle as she blushes at my ministrations.

"Okay, we should get Taylor, the Deerling and the Simisage from Nurse Joy first. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get the team back together again. And luckily for us, we're not too far away from where she is right now." I add, Belladonna's eyes widening in panic once Taylor is mentioned.

"Oh shit, I forgot about Taylor! We need to hurry!" The Venipede shouts at me, immediately taking the reins quite literally as she reaches up and tugs on a clump of my hair. "Alright! We're going, we're going! Just stop pulling on my hair already, Bella! It seriously hurts!" I yelp, pain flaring from my hair roots as Belladonna urges me along in her own way.

"Wait for us, Mister Jay!" Chell grins as she runs over to join me, Nesia quickly slithering to follow by my side as well. "Hey! Don't forget us, you moron!" Safia grins, the Zoroark quickly following me along with everyone else.

"Slow down, you idiot!" Alita call out after me, to which I groan as I gesture to the Bug Type pulling my hair. "I can't, if ya haven't noticed! Bella's too eager to get my ass over there!" I shout behind me, just as the tugging of my hair intensifies. "Less talking, more running!" Belladonna snaps, making me sigh as I jog along. "Yes, ma'am..." I sigh, much to the humor of everyone else as they share a laugh.

"Alright, where would the main hall be?" I ask out loud, a little annoyed at the large size of the Pokemon Center. For as long as I can remember, large buildings have been my greatest weakness. I just always seem to get lost in them, even with the copious amounts of signage around.

"Which way now, Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, to which I shrug. "I have no idea, kiddo. I'd say we should find a sign, but I can't see one." I sigh, unable to locate any sort of indication of where we are in relation to the rest of the hospital ward area.

"Haven't you already been in one of these before, you idiot?" Alita sighs, the Unfezant already getting a mite impatient as she looks from one corridor to the next. She might say that, but she's just as clueless as I am about this.

"Well, hurry up! We need to get to Taylor as soon as we can!" Belladonna urges me just as impatiently, tugging at my hair lightly to accentuate her point as she speaks up. "Alright, alright. Just stop tugging at my hair, jeez." I wince, poking the Venipede atop my head for emphasis.

"Hmm, maybe we should take a right?" Safia suggests, pointing out the hallway that the sign is directing us towards. "Yeah, but there are two ways. How the heck are we supposed to know which way is right?" Dani frowns, looking annoyed at the unclear directions that we're being given.

"Perhaps we should take a left turn?" Katrina suggests, the Liepard unsure about the nature of the two hallways herself. "We shouldn't play guessing games like this. What if we get even more lost?" Leah asks, the Lucario's eyebrows furrowing as she tries to figure out a suitable method of solving this pressing issue.

"And this why I hate huge buildings." I groan, rolling my eyes as I look around for any sort of sign to pinpoint our position. "Ah hear ya, Jay. Never liked them big city buildin's, neither." The Flaafy nods, agreeing to my own opinion of the unnecessarily convoluted inner workings of large buildings.

"Husband, there's a sign behind you." Nesia informs me, the Servine's words getting me to turn around and take a look at what she's referring to. Surely enough, there's a sign that indicates where the paths lead. Oh. That's why I couldn't find one.

"Seriously? You didn't even notice that, you idiot?" Alita deadpans, both the Flying Type and I once again subjected to the sheer awe that is my own lack of spatial awareness. Leah says nothing, looking a little embarrassed that she didn't realize that such an obvious direction indicator was right there.

"Wow, I feel like such a dumbass. Thanks, Ness." I sigh aloud, patting Nesia atop her head in thanks. The Grass Type has no objections, simply enjoying my head pats for all their worth. "Maybe that's because you are one, Jay." Belladonna smirks at me from her perch, while Safia snickers in light of the not-so-subtle jab at my pride.

"She's got a point there, Jay." The Zoroark grins cheekily as we head off towards the direction indicated on the sign of the Pokemon Center, as Dani can't help but laugh a bit herself. "Okay, ouch. That hurts my feelings, damn it..." I sniff in a joking manner, Lily quickly moving over to comfort me with a series of light pats on the back.

"It's okay, Sir! You're not dumb, so don't be so sad about it!" The Liligant panics, trying her best to provide words of reassurance in a futile attempt to salvage my shattered pride. "It's no use Lily. My pride is now lost, scattered to the winds. And I feel really, really sad about it. I appreciate the help, though." I chuckle, faking a sad smile as the Liligant continues to fret about my loss.

"No! Please Jay, don't be sad! There has to be something we can do!" Lily yelps as she starts to freak out, her reaction eliciting a series of laughs from me. "Um, Sir?" The Grass Type asks me, initially confused about my sudden laughter. Once I manage to tone down my chuckling, I quickly turn to clear up her confusion.

"Nah, it's fine. I was just messing with you, that's all." I grin, still coming off of the mirth of my deceit against such a pure-hearted individual. I kinda feel bad about taking advantage of her innocence to make my own petty fun, but I'll be damned if Dani isn't right about the humor of priceless reactions.

"Heh, he got you real good Lily!" Just as I think that, said Whimsicott laughs as well. Yup, looks like we're both on the same wavelength this time. "Hmph, I hate you! You're both so mean to me!" Lily huffs, turning her gaze away from my general direction as she sulks due to our prior teasing. However, her pout doesn't accentuate how angry she really is at all. In fact, it just makes her cuter.

"Waoh, this place is huge!" Dani gasps, looking around the next room between us and the main hall of the PokeCenter. Judging by the large marked fields, it would seem that we have arrived at one of the battle arenas for training. It's empty right now, as it is getting closer to dinner time. There are a few people out and about on the bleachers giving us strange looks, though.

"You got that right! Jeez, what's this place even for?" Safia asks, looking around the large interior with a look of awe. "Whoa, that is a seriously wide open space!" Belladonna adds, the Venipede looking around the field with interest. "I would also like to know, Jay." Leah looks to me, while Lily and Nova simply look around the place, the Volcarona warily staring at the groups of people.

"Don't worry, Nova. They won't hurt you, not while I'm here to help." I assure the frightened Fire Moth, placing a hand to her head for comfort. "Thanks, Jay. I appreciate it." The Volcarona replies, shakily nodding with a small smile as I rub her head.

"To answer your question Leah, this is a training area. Pokemon can fight each other, or just train attacking moves for practice." I explain, before the television located on a nearby wall gets my attention. It's showing the evening news right now, and the picture depicts a burning spot in the forest. Wait a sec, that place looks kinda familiar…

"Breaking news. A secret hideout of the elusive organization Team Rocket has been discovered near the outskirts of Pinwheel Forest. When police arrived at the scene, the base was already in shambles, having been destroyed in advance by an unknown party. We now come to you live on the scene, with on site reporter Lizzie Holland." The TV announces, making me raise an eyebrow. Did Jack actually...

"Lily, I'm sorry okay? It was just a joke, don't be like that!" Dani suddenly speaks up, getting my attention and causing me to look over to the Whimsicott. Surely enough, she's still trying to coax an angry Liligant to forgive her. Her efforts seem to be for naught, however. Sighing, I approach the two Grass Types. Might as well help Dani out.

"Lily, I'm sorry. We were just having a little fun, that's all. Please don't be mad anymore, Lily. Please?" I beg the Grass Type, clasping my hands together in a pleading way as I seek her forgiveness. Lily looks back in my general direction, her glare already softening up against her will as she looks to me. I must say, having someone with such a big heart on our team is such a blessing.

"I don't know, Sir." The Liligant looks away again, although her voice is much less angry now. She seems to be contemplating the idea of forgiving us, but she's also hesitating to say yes. "Aw, c'mon Lily! It was just a little laugh, that's all! No big deal, right?" Dani pleads along with me, which makes said Liligant look to her fellow Grass Type with a look on uncertainty.

"Well, how about this? After we're done with dinner, I'll wash you up extra nice to make it all up to you. Heck, I'll even cuddle you after Nova's done cuddling. Sound good?" I ask Lily, who turns her head towards me once she hears what I have to say.

"T-that sounds nice, Sir." The Liligant admits meekly, her face flushing as she turns to fully face me. "That's good to hear. Glad we could work something out." I grin, reaching out to ruffle the Grass Type's newly formed head leaves. I make sure not to touch the flower by accident, though. I would have continued touching her head for a bit, if not for the obvious thing that catches my attention.

"Now, we should get going. I'm not liking the looks that people are giving us, and I don't think any of you do either." I point out, seriously peeved at the crowd of people staring. They've gotten a little closer than before, and are now approaching us at a relatively fast pace.

"I was actually about to ask you about that." Safia speaks up, glaring at the gathered crowd as they look on without any concern for how my Pokemon would feel. "Ugh, don't these people have anything better to do?" Alita growls, already pissed off that so many people had gathered to simply stare.

"I know, right? Freaking bastards." Dani rolls her eyes, the Whimsicott not amused in the slightest. Everyone else is slightly on edge, Nova already shivering a bit in fear as she looks around to see nothing but the crowd of people around us. From the looks of it, they're likely city goers from the more modernized parts of Unova.

"Whoa, what's that guy doing with so many Pokemon out?" One person from the crowd of bystanders asks, which strikes up conversations among the people. "Doesn't he have his own Pokeballs to keep them in?" Of course, this question simply garners another round of murmurs from the people around us. God, I forgot how annoying and judgmental city goers can be...

"Mister Jay, what are they talking about?" Chell asks me, her face one of confusion as she looks around at the crowd. "They're just not used to seeing a guy with this many Pokemon, that's all. They're being nosy." I sigh, Katrina shaking her head as she looks to me. "My goodness, do these people have nothing better to do?" The Liepard sighs, sharing my sentiments as we continue to walk.

"He's so weird." A woman mutters, pointing to me as her friends also stare at me with weird looks. "Maybe he's one of them Pokemon rights activists." A man spits, already looking like he's getting the idea of beating me up. People these days are really willing to just throw punches around first, huh?

"Ah really don't like this, Jay." Cleo mutters to me, the Flaafy's sentiments shared by everyone else. "Jay, I feel unsafe here. Could we please leave this place?" Nova whimpers to me, her voice barely a whisper as her form tries to shrink and almost disappear from the views of the crowd. Given her past, her reaction is completely understandable.

"Alright, let's head inside." I nod to the team, trying to look over the heads of the people that are currently blocking our path. However, the crowd seems to be quite adamant to take pictures of us. The flashing is quite annoying, the team shielding their eyes as well due to the lights in their faces. Due to my own height, I fail to seem much above the heads of the crowd.

"Ack, quit it you damn monkeys!" Alita shouts in annoyance, her outburst shocking a few of the closer bystanders. However, the people are only eating up the sight of her outburst. Damn it, people really just can't resist a chance to go viral. Finally, I decide enough is enough. Using a subtle burst of my magic, I target every single battery of the phones currently focused on us, shorting them out.

"What the hell just happened!?" Someone gasps, everyone quickly left dumbly staring at their phones in shock once they realize that their phones have ceased to work. "Well, that was annoying. Now if you'll excuse me, my Pokemon and I will take our leave." I sigh, walking away from the now disorganized people that have spread out due to the lack of usable phones to record with.

"What the hell? They just stopped pointing those things at us all of a sudden." Safia asks me, to which I gesture to my eye. "I decided to save us some hassle, so I just blew up all their batteries." I chuckle, Leah eyeing the little rectangles the people are holding with interest.

"Those little slabs are called batteries?" The Lucario questions, making me shake my head as I pull out my own phone. "No, I'll explain later. Right now, we should focus on finding Taylor and getting some food here." I tell Leah with gesture to my TBA, which gets Belladonna to gasp upon remembering that her friend is still not with us.

"We gotta hurry up, Jay! Come on, move faster!" The Venipede urges me on, getting me to nod in reply. "Yeah, on it. We're already there, so calm down. Nurse Joy probably has Taylor healed up already." I assure the Bug Type, increasing my walking speed to a brisk pace as the sliding doors leading to the main hall of the Pokemon Center open upon detecting my presence.

"Hello, Nurse Joy." I greet the nurse at the counter, who looks up to greet me with a professional smile. "Welcome to the Pokemon Center! How may I help you today?" She asks, to which I gesture to my TBA. "Yeah, I have three Pokemon here. They're all pretty banged up after we ran into trouble in the forest, so I'd really appreciate it if your could heal them up." I tell her, getting her to nod.

"Not a problem. That's what I'm here for, after all. I'll just need you to place your credentials here here, and I'll be able to determine if you really are who you claim to be." The Pokemon Nurse tells me, gesturing to the device behind her. Taking out my Pokedex, I hand it to her and allow her to place it onto the scanner.

"Yes, you do seem to be Jay Williamson. Here's your Pokedex back." Nurse Joy hands me back my Pokedex after a bit of looking to and fro from her computer to my face, as if trying to check for any discrepancies. She doesn't immediately hand me back my TBA, however.

"However, the Deerling had a fever and some infected wounds, and the situation was getting worse by the minute." The Nurse tells me after reading the text on her screen, handing me my TBA back. "We escorted the Deerling to our sick bay, and Audino handled it from there." The Nurse explains to me, an Audino holding a clipboard appearing as soon as it's name is mentioned.

"Oh, really? What happened to her? Is she gonna be alright?" I ask out of reflex, wanting to know where they had taken her off to. In response, Audino hands Nurse Joy the clipboard it was holding, and the Nurse looks through the contents before handing the Pokemon it's board back.

"Audino has already finished treating it's infections, and our treatments should make it's fever go away in a few days. Meanwhile, your other Pokemon have been already healed here. I am simply putting your TBA here for safe keeping." She assures me, to which I let loose a sigh of relief.

"Whew, that's good to hear. Sorry for not taking them here sooner, Doc. I was caught up in the forest, with all those wild Pokemon and such. On top of that, my Sewaddle was brave enough to go head to head with an Onix." I explain to the Nurse, who immediately turns to look my way with a judgmental glare. Well, I get it. I am the prime suspect behind the Deerling's poor state of health right now.

"However, I did notice that the Deerling was showing signs of malnutrition. Might I ask what happened to it?" She asks me, making me sigh as I gesture to the forest beyond the entrance of the city. "Well, we didn't find it. If found us, when it was trying to take my food. I tried to give it some, but it just ran off when I offered." I begin my story, Nurse Joy looking at me suspiciously.

"That still doesn't explain why it's in such a bad state." She interrupts me, making me sigh as I gesture to the entrance of the city. "I found her while I was deep in the forest, right after I found a group of dead Sawsbuck missing their antlers. Bullet holes were riddled in the trees nearby, as well as bullet casings littering the floor." I tell Nurse Joy, who begins to see the complete picture.

"Oh, dear. To think that it suffered through such a great deal..." She heaves a sigh as she looks down to her computer, already looking quite concerned for the Pokemon that Audino had tended to. "I shall have to record a case file, so that Officer Jenny will be able to look into the situation. Could you please give me details about about when and where the site was?" Nurse Joy asks me, to which I nod.

"Sure thing. So, when do I start talking?" I ask the doctor that is ironically called Nurse, who points to the camera facing me with a deadpan stare. However, Nurse Joy presses a button underneath her desk before I begin. "What's that for?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow as a couple of Audino appear.

"I shall have these two Audino escort your Pokemon to another room, where they will be questioned about the Deerling as well." Nurse Joy explains, to which I look over to the team surrounding me. "What's questioning, Mister Jay?" Chell asks me, making me point to the Audino who are calmly awaiting the presence of the Pokemon.

"It means that you'll be asked questions, kiddo. Specifically, about the Deerling." I tell the concerned Dewott, before I look to everyone else. "Now, the Audino will tell you what to do. Don't lie about anything and treat this seriously, alright? I'll be really annoyed if you do, and I'm sure they'll find out. Especially you three." I lightly warn the team as Safia, Dani and Katrina all frown as I point to them.

"Now, whatever is that supposed to mean?" The Liepard asks me, her smile not fooling anyone as she throws me an innocent look. "Yeah, no. You're not fooling anyone with that look, Kat. I know for a fact you and those two won't hesitate to throw a wrench into things." I reply, throwing a serious look her way as she pouts cutely.

"Well, I guess I could try not to..." Dani sighs, acting as if what I had asked her to do would sap out all of the fun for her. "Come on Jay, I wouldn't do that! You trust me, right?" Safia asks me, looking at me with a pleading look. In response to her statement, Leah looks to the lupine with a deadpan stare.

"I don't blame Jay for asking that, sister. I don't fully trust you, either." The Lucario sighs, to which Safia frowns playfully as she receives her sister's honest comment. "But sis, I thought you were on my side!" The Zoroark whines, now finding the odds stacked against her. In light of their conversation, I can't help but let off a laugh.

"Well, she's gotta point. I can't really trust you either, with your food stealing antics and all." I add, poking the lupine in the chest for extra emphasis. However, the reaction I get isn't what I had expected. Instead of laughing it off as a part of the joke against her, Safia produces a soft moan as I make contact with her furry chest. "Uh, you okay?" I ask the lupine, who flashes me a sultry grin.

"Oh, Jay! Already trying to claim me for yourself? You perverted human, you!" The Zoroark giggles teasingly, making a blush form on my face as I cough into my hand. "Pervert!" Alita shouts as soon as she hears the Zoroark's accusation, slapping me upside the head with her wing.

"Jay, you need not approach Safia for solutions to solve your desires. She's rather inexperienced. On the other hand, I for one know how to sufficiently please my mate..." Katrina purrs huskily, rubbing her tail along my upper thigh and getting dangerously close to my crotch. I try my damnedest to fight the growing erection my my pants, as my face heats up.

"Oh my..." Nova gasps, the Volcarona blushing at the direct approach of the two Pokemon while all a violently blushing Lily can do to process the situation is to sound off a flustered squeak. "I wonder if he likes it when she approaches him like that..." Leah mutters, her face red as well while she observes the flirting going on.

"Kat's so bold!" Chell giggles, the Dewott giggling as she interprets the situation in her own way. "Husband is such a horndog." Nesia sighs, the Servine shaking her head as she eyes me with a disappointed look.

"Hey, how is this my fault!? I'm not the one making advances here, you know!" I groan, my erection getting harder and harder to ignore as it stiffens in it's cloth prison. Even the rest of the team and the Audino aren't immune to the talk that Safia's spouting, both parties with blushes on their faces.

"Okay, enough of that. Go with the Audino, now. I'll be done soon, okay?" I sigh, pushing the flirty Zoroark and Liepard away from me before she flusters me any further. Don't need Nurse Joy getting the wrong idea, after all. However, the Nurse just looks rather confused by the sudden banter that has occurred between myself and my cheeky Dark Types.

"We'll be back soon, Mister Jay!" Chell assures me, before she and the Pokemon walk off to follow the visibly uncomfortable Audino to the room for their own interrogations. "What was that?" Nurse Joy asks me, looking quite confused as to what had just transpired. "Ugh, something that they'll never let me live down..." I groan, acting like my blush was one of embarrassment rather than arousal.

"Okay, Jay. Your Pokemon should be healed fully now, and the Deerling should wake soon. However, the Deerling will have to remain here for a few days before she recovers from her malnutrition." Nurse Joy tells me with a smile as her confusion dissipates, to which I nod thankfully in her direction.

"Thanks a bunch, Joy. Can I see the Deerling once it's awake?" I ask, the Nurse considering the notion for a couple of seconds before addressing me. "As long as you make sure no further harm comes to her, I don't see why not. I shall inform you when she wakes. You will have to wait here for your Pokemon to finish providing their testimonies, though." She replies, before giving me my TBA.

"Oh, nice! Thanks, Nurse Joy." I grin, pressing the button to release the Sewaddle from her confines. As soon as she's freed from cryostasis, she immediately looks around, wondering where she is. "I'm over here, Taylor." I chuckle, getting her attention and causing her to turn around.

"Hey. Where's Bella?" She asks me, to which I eye the corridor that the team had disappeared down before looking back to the Bug Type. "She'll be back soon, just went to do something real quick. So, we're just here waiting." I assure the Sewaddle, who nods as she turns away from me. Is it just me, or does she seem a little… quieter than usual?

"Uh, Taylor? Is everything alright?" I ask the Bug Type, who glares at me with her usual expression. "Of course I'm okay, you ass! Now fuck off!" She yells at me, although she isn't as immediate about her response. I did notice her second of hesitation, but I decide not to press the issue for now.

"Are your Pokemon all female, Jay?" Nurse Joy asks me out of the blue, seeing as no one else has decided to come to the front desk to ask her for assistance. I initially raise an eyebrow due to the unexpected question, but shrug it off. "Was it really that obvious?" I ask the Nurse, who smiles as she shakes her head. "No, but I had a hunch." She admits, making me grin.

"Why'd ya ask, anyways?" I ask Nurse Joy, who leans in a little closer before whispering in my ear. "Because, it would seem that they are all a little infatuated with you." She adds, getting me to pale as I begin to sweat upon hearing her observation.

"Oh, don't worry miss. Not illegal actions here. Nope. Zit. Zero. Nada." I quickly cover up my own fear, which gets the woman talking to me to giggle as she places a hand on my shoulder. "Whoever said I had accused you of illegal actions, Jay?" She asks me, causing me to mentally curse and kick myself for my own stupidity.

"However, you need not worry. I won't tell a soul." Nurse Joy quickly assures me, which gets me to raise an eyebrow in genuine surprise. "All of us Nurse Joys have seen at least a few cases like this, and we have all given the trainers and their Pokemon our full support. That is, if their relationship is consensual." Nurse Joy assures me, to which I sigh in relief.

"That's good to hear. Nice to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that way about Pokemon, at least." I chuckle, Nurse Joy staring at me as well. "However, this the first time I have seen such a case. How on earth did you get this many Pokemon to fall for you?" Nurse Joy asks me, getting me to shrug.

"To be honest? I have no idea whatsoever. Most times, I wonder why they even follow me around. I'm not even that good at leading them, to be honest." I admit, Nurse Joy looking to me in confusion as she hears me out. "Why is that? You caught them yourself, didn't you?" She asks me, making me put a hand to my chin.

"Yeah, but I told them that they could leave whenever they saw me as unfit to lead them. I also make sure to tend to their needs, and make sure that they get as much time out of their Pokeballs as possible." I explain to the Nurse, whose eyes widen in surprise as she hears me out.

"You sound like quite the considerate person, Jay. However, I am not certain if you are simply making all of this up." She interrogates me, albeit a little jokingly. "What do you think? I don't think anyone who wronged a creature that could kill them easily would have them out of their Pokeballs all the time, now would they?" I shoot back with a question, causing the nurse to giggle in reply.

"I suppose you have a point there, Jay." She smiles, before her look turns serious. "Take good care of them, and don't break their hearts. Pokemon mate for life, so breaking up with them could have catastrophic results." She reminds me, to which I nod. "Don't worry, Doc. I don't plan on hurting them in any way, any time soon." I reply, just in time for me to notice the team walking over to us.

"Heya, everyone." I wave to them, Chell quickly waving back as she looks at me. "Hiya, Mister Jay! We're back!" The Dewott announces, smiling widely as she approaches me alongside the others. "Nice to see you too, kiddo." I chuckle, patting the Water Type atop her head and getting her to giggle.

"Taylor! You're okay! I missed you so, so much!" Belladonna cries, immediately moving over to nuzzle her fellow Bug Type with no shortage of enthusiasm. "Yeah, Bella. It's good to be back." Taylor replies, a small smile gracing her features as she nuzzles the Venipede in return.

"Thanks for taking them back here, Audino. They didn't cause too much trouble, now did they?" I ask the two nursing assistants, who shake their heads. "Not at all, Sir. They were quite well behaved." One of them informs me, which makes me raise an eyebrow.

"Really? That's good, then." I chuckle, before turning my attention to Nurse Joy. "Could I rent a room for the night? I think the team and I could really use the change of scenery for tonight." I speak to the Nurse, who nods as she looks over to my team. "Does a deluxe room with two king sized beds sound good?" She asks, to which I nod. "Yeah, sounds great. How much?"

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Liligant)**

 **-Dani (Whimsicott)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	87. Update!

**Sup, everyone! Roccer here, back at it again!**

And me. The lazy guy.

 _And me! Brother of Jay!_

 **Yeah, I guess they're here too. Anyways, you're all probably wondering why I haven't uploaded anything up here in over two weeks.**

Yeah, he was just being lazy and doing gaming stuff.

 **Uh, no I was not. I had exams, you freaking moron! You were there, and I was studying management!**

 _Roccer has a point! He was up studying and being productive even after midnight, unlike you!_

Yes. I was up all night actually.

 **Wait, what? What were you up to?**

Banging Kat. She's so sexy, I just can't resist her when she begs me for it. You know how it is.

 _Brother, the audience does not need to know about you having coitus with your Pokemon! Now stop it!_

 **And I did not need to know about how tight she is. God damn it, Jay.**

Nah, you totally needed to know. She's absolutely Purr-fect for me.

 _BROTHER! You are unbelievable, I swear! Stop it with those agonizing jokes, right now!_

Eh, you're gonna have to do a little more paw-suading than that.

 _JAY, I swear to God!_

 **...Stop. My God, just stop. Anyways, my exams are over after I used my maxed out cramming skill to crush the Exam! I have mastered the art of cramming, and it's working a damn treat! Anyways, I'll be up and writing by next week, so have no fear! But for now, let me play Monster Hunter World more, god damn it! A boy needs his break time!**

 _Roccer, you should try and finish your work earlier! What about your readers?_

 **Exactly why I'm writing. Sorry about this, guys! I need my personal time, ya know! I just wanna do me things for now, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!**

Welp, you heard the boss man. See ya next week, everyone.

 _...Very well, then. Until next time, friends!_

 **Signing off for now,**

 **Roccer,** _Yupia_ and Jay


	88. Chapter 85

Chapter 85

[Jay]

"Alright, everyone. This is our sleeping place for the night. Now hold on, so I can find the key..." I tell the team as we reach the door to our deluxe room, everyone undoubtedly quite tired after their whole ordeal with me almost dying and such. And they waited the whole two days for me to wake up, and I'm pretty sure they didn't leave my side during that time.

"So, this is where we'll stay for the night? Eh, could be worse." Safia shrugs, staring at the wooden door that separates us from the inside of the hotel room. "It does look a little... bland, compared to what I had expected." Leah adds, her comment causing Chell to look at them in shock and surprise.

"Really!? But last time I was here, our place was really cool and comfortable!" Chell exclaims, to which I chuckle as I pat the Dewott's head. "Calm down, kiddo. They haven't even seen the interior yet, so they may still be surprised." I assure the Water Type, who nods as she looks to Safia and Leah.

"Yeah, like Mister Jay said! You'll be surprised, you'll see!" The Dewott replies as she turns to face the Zoroark and Lucario again, the former looking to the door and shrugging once more. "Well, if you say so." She replies, Dani looking at the plain wooden door with a look of uncertainty.

"Chell, are you sure this place'll be the same as the one you stayed at?" The Whimsicott asks the excited Water Type, who nods without a hint of hesitation. "Yeah, I'm sure! Tell 'em, you guys!" The Dewott argues, turning to the members of our team that have had a stay in one of these Pokecenter rooms before. Nesia simply conveys her agreement in the form of a nod, Katrina doing the same.

"I'll… trust Chell on this one, Dani." Lily meekly says, the Liligant not wanting to hurt the Dewott's feelings as she watches this argument from the side. "I shall also put my faith in Chell." Nova nods, the Volcarona looking to the Dewott with a nod. "Yay! Thanks, you guys!" The Dewott grins, giving the two Pokemon a grateful grin as she looks their way.

"I'm not too sure about that, Chell. This really doesn't look like much..." Belladonna points out, the Venipede not looking too impressed. "Ugh, whatever! Let's just head inside so we can relax already!" Taylor groans, not having any of this conversation as the Sewaddle urges us to get a move on.

"'Sides, we'll never find out if we just stay out here all day. Open 'er up, Jay! Ah wanna see if these fancy shmancy hotel rooms are all they're cracked up ta be." Cleo urges me, making me grin as I slide the key into the electronic lock.

"Calm down, oh ye of little faith. Let me show you just how awesome a place like this can be. Now, behold!" I gesture as soon as I swing open the door, revealing a spacious area. Well, spacious as a Pokecenter room can get, but still. There's a door leading to the bathroom, and two large double beds against one of the walls in the room. The TV is huge, and I mean 60 inch plasma screen huge.

"This is the place? Looks kinda small." Safia comments, the Zoroark a little disappointed at the floor size of the whole place. "Yeah, but trust me when I say that there's more to this place than how big it is." I assure her, before setting down my backpack in a corner of the room.

"Finally, I get to take break!" Alita sighs, the Unfezant quickly flying off to claim a bed for herself. "Well, Ah'll be! This here room is lookin' mighty fancy!" Cleo whistles appreciatively, the Flaafy looking around the place with a look of surprise on her face. There's even a patio here, and it overlooks the forest around us. That is quite the nice view to wake up to, I'll admit.

"Hold up for a sec, I just need to let the Simisage out first. They poor guy's been cooped up in there for who knows how long, not to mention Jimmy's had his hands on them a while back." I remind the team, before pulling out my TBA and inputting the command to release the Grass Type from the AVR.

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that guy!" Chell gasps, having suddenly realized what I was referring to. "I knew we were missing something important!" Safia slams a curled up paw into her opened palm, the Zoroark looking quite proud of herself that she had managed to remember that little detail.

"And you only think of this now, you idiot?" Alita deadpans from her spot on the bed, making me shrug as I look to the Unfezant. "Hey, you didn't remember that either Ali. The blame isn't all mine." I huff playfully, before Belladonna throws me a smirk.

"But you're the one with the device, Jay. Shouldn't you keep tabs on what's in it?" The Venipede retorts cheekily, her argument proving to be quite solid as I find no way to refute her. "She's got a point there, Jay." Dani shrugs, while she and Safia share a snicker.

"Belladonna does hold a decent argument, Jay. It is your device, after all." Leah agrees with the Venipede, while Cleo simply chuckles as she watches the conversation. "Heh, yer outnumbered Jay. Might as well give up." The Flaafy snorts, causing me to sigh and roll my eyes.

"Damn it, you guys. Ganging up on me isn't fair, ya know." I grumble, although my annoyance is more or less exaggerated. As the team share a laugh, the Simisage finishes materializing onto the floor of the hotel room. It's currently fast asleep, it's chest rising and falling as it snoozes.

"They've probably been through a lot, so just let 'em sleep for now." I quickly suggest, the team nodding in silent agreement as I take a pillow from the beds and lift the Pokemon onto it, before setting it the pillow onto the nearby table. After that I quickly pull out my phone, checking the time.

"Jay, what is that thing you're holding?" Leah asks me as she points to the phone, making me raise an eyebrow before I remember. "Oh, yeah. I never really got to explaining this thing, huh?" I realize, before gesturing to the small handheld item in my hands.

"Anyways, this thing is called a smartphone." I begin, Nesia immediately taking notice of the handheld device. "What's that thingy do?" Dani asks me, getting me to turn mine on in order to explain. Before I can tell her however, Nesia is quick to steal my thunder.

"A phone can be used to talk to others across long distances, so you can talk to others from very far away." Nesia explains for me, Chell's eyes widening as she looks to my phone. "Woah! That's so neat!" The Dewott gasps as she fawns over the device, to which I frown at the Servine. "But Ness, I was gonna explain and look smart!" I whine, which gets Alita to roll her eyes.

"Come on, you idiot. She said it so you didn't have to, so quit being a dick." The Unfezant sighs, a little amused by my antics if her smile is anything to go by. "Yeah, you ass. You're already acting smart enough in fights, and there's no need to act smart outside of 'em." Taylor rolls her eyes, agreeing with the Unfezant.

"You're such a greedy dumbass, Jay. Don't you ever get tired of doing all the explaining?" The Venipede adds, which gets me to shake my head in disagreement as Dani and Safia share a snicker from that little jab.

"No, and being smart makes me feel better about myself!" I whine, making both the Unfezant and the Venipede shake their heads. "Ali's right, Jay. Just let Ness hog the spotlight fer once, 'kay?" Cleo adds, the Flaafy cracking a wry grin at my exaggerated frown. Meanwhile, Nova and Katrina simply giggle at the casual banter we're having as Leah smiles.

"D-don't worry, Sir! I still think you're smart!" Lily quickly says to comfort me, the Liligant patting my shoulder for comfort as she looks me over with an expression of worry. "Heh, don't sweat it Lily. We're just joking around." I assure the Grass Type, whose face flushes in embarrassment.

"Oh, I see..." The Liligant trails off, face now beet red as she quickly realizes that she had overreacted and my feelings hadn't been hurt in the first place. "I do appreciate the concern, though. You really know how to make a guy feel wanted, huh?" I smile warmly, causing the Grass Type's face to flush a shade of red I previously hadn't thought to be possible. She does sport a small smile, though.

"Lily's right! You're really smart, Mister Jay!" Chell assures me, the Dewott still donning her optimistic smile as she addresses me. "Heh, thanks kiddo. I appreciate that, coming from you." I grin, lifting the Water Type up with both my hands and pecking her cheek lightly. This causes her to smile wider, only getting happier as she hugs my head now that she's in range.

"Yay, Mister Jay's loving kiss!" The Dewott smiles cutely, a light blush blooming on her face and making her appear all the cuter as she receives my affectionate gesture. "God, I love you so much kiddo." I sigh, Chell grinning as she smooches me in the cheek in return. She is so damn adorable, and man can she nail the feeling of innocent loving perfectly!

"I love you too, Mister Jay! I love you lots and lots!" Chell's practically beaming now, waving her arms around to accentuate how big her love for me is. "Aw, Chell. You're making me blush now." I chuckle, feeling my cheeks warm up as I hug the Dewott gently and feel her soft fur in my hands.

"Hah! You got beat to the punch, sucker!" Safia snickers, which gets Dani to join in on the laughter. "She doesn't even have actual fists, Jay! How could you have let this happen!?" The Whimsicott laughs out loud, making me roll my own eyes as I smile wryly. During their giggling however, I quickly seize the perfect opportunity to make use of their jest.

"No, no, Safia. You said that wrong." I tell the Zoroark, who looks genuinely confused. "What did I say wrong?" She asks me, to which I grin. "You're supposed to say, that I got beat to the Sucker Punch." I correct her, the lupine shaking her head in amusement as she hears me out.

"Ugh, god damn it you idiot! Enough of your stupid puns already!" Alita groans, smacking over the head with her wing with extreme prejudice. "Ugh, could you fucking stop?" Taylor adds, looking quite irked by my choice of puns. Even more irritated by my jokes than usual, in fact.

"Yeesh, don't get all riled up. I was just trying use my natural talon-t to lighten the mood a bit, so just let me wing it for a bit. Besides, there is absolutely no way I'd leaf such a good opportunity be." I chuckle, much to the ire of the Flying Type as she groans in exasperation.

"Enough already!" Alita shouts, her air of annoyance partially ruined by her small smile. "Come on, you fucking ass! Just quit making those shitty jokes already!" Taylor shouts indignantly, spitting some silk at me for good measure. As expected, the stuff clings to my hair and makes me sigh.

"Jay, you freaking dumbass." Belladonna sighs, shaking her head in mild exasperation as she gets the pun. "Hah, that face you're making is priceless!" Dani snickers, Safia joining in on the laughter as she and the Whimsicott revel in the emotional suffering of their comrades.

"Well, Ah can't say that wasn't clever." Cleo chuckles, Chell giggling as she hears me put my poor sense of humor to use. "It wasn't really funny, though." Lily frowns, not really understanding the humor behind twisting the meaning of various words. Eh, to each their own.

"N-not that I find you bad or anything, Sir! I didn't mean it like that at all!" Lily suddenly gasps correcting herself as she realizes that she may have offended me indirectly. In reply, I can't help but chuckle as I place a hand on her leafy head gently to get her out of her self induced panic.

"Come on, silly-Lily. You didn't hurt my feelings, because I know these jokes are bad. No need to get so worried about me, alright? I can take a little criticism." I smile, ruffling the Liligant's head lightly and reassuringly as she calms down. A light blush colors her cheeks as she nods meekly, to which I chuckle and shake my head. Meanwhile, Leah simply shakes her head in slight disbelief.

"Why do you insist on wasting time, just to make more puns?" The Lucario sighs, to which I grin in the direction of the jackal. "For puns, I'll gladly make the time. Besides, they're not a waste of time to me. They're awesome, and the best form of humor there is!" I declare with an exaggerated motion, Nesia simply rolling her eyes as she hears my defense.

"Husband is unbelievable sometimes." Nesia speaks up, the Servine smiling softly as she looks my way. "And I will never get tired of your cute smile, you know." I retort, leaning down to kiss the Grass Type and getting her to blush lightly as she hears the compliment.

"You make me feel so happy, Jay." Nesia mumbles, looking a little flustered as her cool and collected demeanor cracks a little to show the shy layer underneath. God, the change in her attitude can be so damn cute. Not to mention, how bluntly she puts things all the time just adds to that! This Servine alone gives more love than my heart can take, damn it!

"What even are those?" Belladonna asks me, gesturing to the two beds against the wall of our room. "Whatever they are, they're really taking up a lot of space. Where are we even supposed to sleep in here?" Safia snorts, finding the beds a little annoying to deal with. Her reaction simply makes me chuckle for a bit, realizing that she hasn't been introduced to the idea of sleeping in a bed before.

"What's so funny?" The Zoroark asks me with a raised eyebrow, to which I gesture to the bed. "That's a bed, Safia. It's what we're gonna be sleeping on, and trust me when I say it's seriously comfy." I assure the lupine, who looks to the two beds with a look of uncertainty. "You should take his word for it. This is seriously nice, I'm telling ya." Alita grins, settled on the pillow already.

"Woah! This place is even bigger than last time!" Chell gasps, before quickly making her way to the bed and hoisting herself onto it. It's taking her a bit off effort to do so, though. However, a quick boost from Nesia helps to give Chell the boost she needs. Cleo doesn't experience the same problem as Chell does, lifting herself up onto the bed without much of an issue.

"Yay! Thanks, Ness!" The Dewott smiles at the Servine, who nods before she uses her vines to lift herself onto the same bed so she can relax. "It's so soft, Mister Jay!" The Water Type giggles and cheers, enjoying every second of the fluffy bed as she rolls around in it. "Hoowhee! This here bed is real nice, Ah'll give it that." Cleo nods in agreement, the Flaafy having taken a liking to the bed already.

"Geez, kid. Don't mess up the bed before I get a chance to sleep in it!" I sigh, shaking my head as I watch the Dewott roll around and reveling in the soft bed sheets. "But it feels so good, Mister Jay! It's so amazing!" Chell stops to address me with her head upside down, before continuing her play time.

"If our previous experience was anything to be considered, then this night shall be quite the pleasurable one." Katrina speaks up in favor of Chell's opinion, before looking to me and licking her lips seductively. "Perhaps even in more ways than one, nya..." The Liepard purrs huskily as she nears me, causing my hormonal imagination to go haywire with the implications of that sentence.

"I swear, you are such a lusty little minx." I sigh, smiling as I rub the feline's head. "And you do not seem to have a problem with that aspect of me, Master." Katrina retorts, rubbing her tail dangerously close to my crotch area again. However, I gently grab her tail before she can make the situation worse.

"Not here, Kat. Maybe later, though." I suggest, the feline smiling in contentment as she hears my answer. "Ugh, Chell! Could you not!? I'm trying to relax over here!" Alita yells at her teammate, who's interrupting her roosting with the sudden rolling around and such. "Oh, sorry Ali!" Chell sheepishly grins, before coming to an abrupt halt and simply laying atop the bed with her arms splayed out.

"Is the bed really that soft?" Leah asks as she looks to the bed, getting me to shrug. "I dunno, haven't tried it yet. You could try it and see for yourself, though." I suggest, looking around for a place to hang up my coat. Hearing my response, the Lucario walks over to the bed and touches it with her paw, surprised as she feels the fabric almost compress and give in to her force.

"Eh, might as well try it." Safia shrugs, before walking over to the other vacant bed and laying down on top of it. Almost immediately after her body makes contact with the soft fabric, she lets out a gasp and grins widely.

"Oh my fucking god, this is so soft and comfy!" She squeals in delight, spreading her arms out as she savors the feeling of the bed sheets and the way the mattress gives in to her weight. "Heh, I told you so." Alita chuckles, keeping an eye on the Zoroark as she rests atop the pillow on the other bed.

"Watch the claws though, those sheets are easy to rip." I warn the lupine, but I can't help but grin at the sight of her with her arms out like she's trying to hug the bed itself. Seeing her half sister become so infatuated with the mattress, Leah decides to take the plunge and lay herself down onto the bed that Safia's occupying.

"I'll admit, this is very comfortable." The Lucario speaks up as soon as her back hits the soft sheets, the Fighting and Steel Type letting her own weight sink into the fabric as she lets loose a sigh. And just like that the comfy beds claim another victim, never to rise from it's surface again.

"Whoa, for real? Let me try!" Dani speaks up, having seen three members of the team fall to the allure of the deceptively comfortable beds. Not wasting another second, she quickly floats over the bed and lets her cotton fold in on itself, losing her weightlessness and falling onto the soft surface.

"Oh my god, this really is super soft! Lily, you have to try this!" The Whimsicott gasps, pleasantly surprised at the feeling of the sheets. "Really?" Lily asks, to which I pat the bed and nod. "Yeah, really. Trust me, this is one of the best things to sleep on." I assure the Lilligant, who looks to the bed before hoisting herself onto the one Safia, Leah and Dani are on.

"Whoa, this is really soft!" Lily's eyes widen, as I catch what appears to be a faint sparkle in them as she feels up the fabric. Having seen the positive reactions of everyone else to the beds, Belladonna and Taylor are now trying to get onto the bed themselves.

"Uh, do you two need some help?" I comment, raising an eyebrow at the attempts of the two Bug Types. "What do you think, you fucking ass!?" Taylor shouts as she glares at me, a no-bullshit expression on her face as she replies to my remark. Belladonna and I jump a little at the sudden outburst, which the Sewaddle notices and allows her hostile gaze to falter just a little.

"Okay, geez. No need to be so hostile, ya know." I grin, before using my hands to scoop both small Pokemon off of the ground and onto the soft valley that is the bed. "Uh, you okay Taylor?" Belladonna asks her friend, who turns to her with a look of anger.

"I'm fine!" She growls threateningly, before she realizes who it is that she became angry at. "Oh! Sorry, Bella. I-" She starts, but the Venipede simply turns around and crawls off to settle down on the other side of the bed. Seeing how she had hurt her friend, the Sewaddle looks downwards in an almost ashamed fashion. Yeah, Taylor's definitely acting a little off today.

"What's up with you?" Alita asks, which earns her a glare from Taylor. "What's it to you, birdbrain!?" The Bug Type growls, making Alita expression become one of anger as she glares at the Sewaddle. "Well excuse me for asking, you little pest!" The Unfezant growls in kind, before both parties simply huff and turn their heads away from each other.

"Okay, I'll need the two of you to follow me for a second." I speak up, promptly scooping up both Taylor and Belladonna from their spots on the bed. "Hey! What the fuck, you ass!? Let me go, right fucking now!" The Sewaddle shouts, wriggling to try and escape my grasp but to no avail.

"Wait a sec, Jay! What's going on?" Belladonna yelps in surprise, having been taken by surprise by my sudden action. In response, I simply turn to the team. "Sorry, girls. You'll just have to excuse me for a minute. We have some things that need to be dealt with." I explain, before quickly exiting the main room and sliding open the glass door to reach the patio area.

"Do you mind explaining yourself, you ass!? Why the fuck did you drag us out here?" Taylor glares at me as I place them onto the outside table, still quite agitated as to why I suddenly did this to the both of them. Belladonna looks to me, still unsure of why she was included in this as well. In response, I look down at Taylor.

"You just shouted at Bella, Taylor. You get along so well with her, and I've never seen you so angry at her before." I point out, raising an eyebrow as my words get Taylor to flinch in remembrance and Belladonna to hesitantly turn to look at the Sewaddle.

"So what? I can't be angry at my best friend without you knowing why, Jay?" Taylor growls at me, her glare faltering for a split second before hardening again. "So, you are angry at me then?" The Venipede looks to the Sewaddle, a hurt look on her face as she hears her say that. Taylor immediately loses her angry demeanor once she sees Belladonna's reaction, regret taking it's place.

"That's not what I'm saying, Taylor. Bella didn't do anything to piss you off, and you don't seem like someone who would randomly hate her best friend. You weren't even as talkative as you are normally. Something's bothering you, and I wanna know what." I reply, looking her in the eyes for an answer.

"Taylor, please tell me what's wrong." Belladonna speaks up, having realized that her friend was troubled by something. Taylor says nothing, a look of equal parts shock and guilt surfacing in her eyes as she looks at me. Seems like I hit the nail right on the head this time, huh? However she quickly turns around, not willing to look at me for another second.

"...Shut it, Jay! I don't need to tell you everything, so leave me the fuck alone!" The Sewaddle spits, quite angered that I had seen through her change in mannerisms like I did. "But why…?" Belladonna sniffs and tears up, those words cutting through through her heart like a knife through butter.

"Listen, Taylor. If you don't wanna tell me, that's fine." I sigh, before looking away from the Sewaddle and out into the distance. The night has just begun, the moon shining a soft and pale silvery glow onto everything as I remain there, watching the scenery.

"But you should know that bottling up all that hurt inside you isn't good for you, and it isn't good for the people that care about you either. Honestly, it hurts me to see you in such pain. Belladonna doesn't want you to hurt inside, either." I add, to which Taylor tenses up once I mention that we're hurting just as much as she is.

"Just know that if ya wanna talk about it, we'll be here for you. Once you're done cooling off, you can come back in through the door." I sigh after a moment of silence, turning to leave the patio. "Wait!" However, Taylor's voice cuts through the silence of the night and stops me in my tracks.

"It's… It's because I lost that fight, god damn it! I'm really fucking mad at myself because I lost, okay!?" The Sewaddle shouts angrily, making me turn around to see tears streaming down her cheeks. Not wasting another second, I quickly make my way back over to her side.

"I saw Dani win against that Seismitoad, so I thought I'd be able to win a fight against that Onix. But then I fucked up, and got my ass kicked! And now, I feel so fucking useless! I can't even win one damn fight! Not! Even! One!" Taylor yells out her true feelings, each word getting shakier and shakier as her final words end in a broken string of sobbing.

"Taylor..." Belladonna whispers, moving over to nuzzle her head against the small form of the Grass and Bug Type, while I decide to stroke her back gently in order to console her. "That's it, Taylor. It's okay." I soothe, which simply makes her raise her head to glare at my with misty eyes.

"No! It's not okay to cry, because that's what makes you weak! But here I am, crying anyways! On top of that, I couldn't even win when someone like Dani could! What does that say about me, huh!?" The Bug Type cries out helplessly, breaking down into more angry, wracking sobs soon after.

"That says nothing about you, Taylor. It just means you're not at your best." I quickly cut her off, which gets her to stop her self loathing for a second and direct her gaze to me once more. "And what the hell is that supposed to mean!? That I'll never amount to anything!? That I'll never become any stronger!?" The Sewaddle shouts at me angrily, which gets me to shake my head.

"No, it just means you'll never be at your best. That's because you can always get stronger, even though you think you can't. Even if you think you can't, I know you can. So trust me on this, alright? I'll help you get stronger any way I can, you just have to believe in yourself." I assure the Sewaddle, who looks to me as her anger slowly dissipates.

"Don't worry, Taylor. You and I both know, that Jay won't back down on this promise." Belladonna adds, the Venipede nodding at the Sewaddle once their eyes meet. However, this just cues into another angry and teary look from Taylor directed at me.

"Why?" She whispers, making me raise an eyebrow. "Why what?" I ask the Bug Type, who glares daggers at me. "Why are you being so nice to me!? I've been nothing but a total dick to you, and you still try and make me feel better! I wanna know why, damn it!" She yells at me, staring into my eyes to try and find an answer. In response to her demands, I simply wrap her into a hug.

"No! Let go of me, Jay! Right now! Let… me… go…!" Taylor growls, struggling in my grasp for a few more seconds before giving up and simply letting her tears soak my hoodie. "Well, it's because I care way too much about you. I can't leave you in pain, no matter what." I reply, before I see the Sewaddle poke her head out from where she buried it into my clothes.

"I..." She begins, before I reach over to wipe her tears from her face with my free hand. "So don't cry, okay? I'll always help you out, I promise." I tell the Bug Type, who's still crying fresh tears as she hears me out. "I'm sorry, Jay. I'm sorry for getting all mad at you..." She sniffs, while Belladonna simply watches from the side.

"Nah, I get it. You lost, and you got angry. Losing sucks, but we can always learn from 'em and make ourselves stronger. Just remember that you'll never have to feel the pain of defeat alone, alright? I'll be here for you, anytime." I reassure the Bug Type as her eyes meet with mine, Taylor nodding as I catch the smallest hint of a blush spread out onto her cheeks.

"Thanks, Jay. This really means a lot." Taylor affords a weak smile, as I chuckle while looking to Belladonna. "But, there's one more person you should say sorry to. You kinda hurt her feelings when you yelled at her earlier, too." I remind the Sewaddle, setting her down in front of Belladonna.

"Hey, Bella. I'm sorry for yelling at you like that. That was really stupid of me, and-" Taylor begins, before the Venipede nuzzles the other Bug Type with her feelers. "That's okay, Taylor. I forgive you, so there's no need to say you're sorry." She replies, Taylor smiling joyfully as she nuzzles her back.

"Hey, Jay? You better mean what you said just now. You'd better make me super strong, okay?" Taylor mumbles as soon as they separate from their make up session, to which I grin. "But of course, Taylor. I don't intend on breaking this promise." I nod, before scooping both Bug Types into my hands.

"Alright, we should head inside. There's still some time before dinner, and I think the bed still has a few free spots." I suggest, Taylor and Belladonna nodding in agreement and making the choice unanimous. "Uh, Jay? You wouldn't mind if I was next to you, right?" Taylor asks me, her voice conveying timidity I didn't expect from her.

"But you're next to me right now, though." I point out with a cheeky grin, grinning as she groans in exasperation. "No, you ass! I meant… when we get onto the bed." She mumbles that last bit, to which I grin cheekily at the easily misunderstood sentence. Oh, this'll be so much fun.

"Okay, sure. By the way, being next to someone else in bed means that you want to have sex with me in human terms." I snicker, my humor only furthered once I see the Sewaddle's face light up like a Christmas tree.

"W-W-What the fuck do you mean by that!?" Taylor screams, flustered beyond belief as she hears me say that. "It means that you basically asked me to have sex with you." I conclude before bursting into laughter, Belladonna's face heating up a little as well once she gets the message. "I didn't know you were that bold, Taylor!" The Venipede giggles, getting a kick out of teasing her friend.

"N-no! I didn't mean that at all! I just wanted to be closer… You both know what I mean!" Taylor growls, her expression giving way to anger. However, the color on her cheeks doesn't fade at all. "Heh, kidding! I'm not gonna do it with ya unless you want to. And about the whole getting closer to me thing? Sure, I don't mind." I reply, sliding open the door and walking back inside.

"Hey guys, we're back. Did I miss anything?" I ask, Safia simply pointing one of her claws at Chell. "Eh, not much. We're just lazing around." She replies, getting me to nod as I place Belladonna and Taylor onto the bed.

"You were right, Chell. This is seriously nice." Belladonna admits, settling down next to the Dewott. "Heehee, I know right? It's so good, I could just go to sleep..." Chell giggles before sighing blissfully, the Dewott enjoying her time as she has now taken to simply laying there.

"Same here, Chell. Man, this feels freaking awesome..." Dani sighs as well, making me shake my head and chuckle. "Come on, you two. Don't go sleeping on me yet, we still haven't had dinner yet. Also, we haven't gotten to the TV." I remind the two, Chell sitting up straight as she realizes that fact.

"Oh yeah! We have to try the TV, you guys!" The Dewott gasps, now fully excited and ready to share the wonders of the television with her fellow teammates. It's only now that I notice that Nova hasn't even tried the bed as of yet, her entire form tensed up as she eyes the beds.

"Nova?" I ask the Volcarona, walking over to her and snapping her out of her trance with a jump. "O-oh, Jay! I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention." She stutters, before I look to the beds and back to her. "You're scared of the beds, aren't you?" I ask the Volcarona, who hesitates before nodding slowly.

"...Yes. They remind me of my life, before you came to save me." The Fire Moth admits, to which I unconsciously clench my fists again. Again, I'm reminded of just how evil some people can be. The rest of the team falls silent, realizing the gravity of the situation. After a couple seconds of thought, I turn to Nova and touch her horn to try and console her.

"Nova, you don't have to join us on the bed if you don't feel like it. Here, I can pull up a chair for you." I offer, to which the Bug Type nods. "I would like that a lot, Jay. Thank you." She replies as she gives a weak smile, which gets me to smile at her in kind.

"Heh, glad to help. I'll be here for you, whenever you need me to be. Got that?" I tell Nova, who nods gratefully as I drag the chair over to her location, between the space of the two beds. It's not that much of a chair and more like a single seated couch, but whatever.

Once the Volcarona is comfortable in the chair, I turn to grab the TV remote before choosing the left bed to sit down on. I take a spot next to Nesia and Alita, both Pokemon having already occupied both pillows. "Husband?" The Servine looks over to me, causing me to stare her way in reply.

"I'll be sitting here for a while. Hope you girls don't mind my intrusion." I grin as I address the Grass Type, who shakes her head as she slithers over to me. "No, I do not mind at all." She tells me, smiling as she nuzzles her head into my chest.

"Well, whatever you idiot. Just don't do anything funny!" Alita averts her gaze from mine, a light blush on her cheeks as she warns me. I stroke her lithe form as I sit there, enjoying her presence as Katrina decides to slink closer to me.

"I for one do not mind, either. Your presence here is highly valued, Jay." Katrina giggles, purring as she leans her frame into my lap. In response, I sigh and pet the Liepard on the head as well. "And I don't mind your intrusion either, my lovely kitten." I chuckle, leaning over to plant a quick kiss on her forehead.

"Amazing, there's light coming from it!" I hear Leah gasp in shock, to which I turn to see the Lucario looking quite surprised by the sight of the TV lighting up like that. Lily and Nova are surprised as well, both Pokemon not sure what to make of this new discovery.

"Whoa, that's seriously neat! And there's even other humans and Pokemon moving around in there!" Safia adds, the Zoroark equally as intrigued by the workings of the television. "Jay, are those people and Pokemon really inside the TV!?" Leah gasps as she looks to me, her expression now urgent and concerned. Her words get Cleo and I to laugh, the Flaafy giving off an amused snort.

"Don't sweat it, Leah. It's nothin' like that, 'cuz all this is recorded by them humans." Cleo tells the worried jackal, chuckling a little as she gauges their overreactions. "Yeah, this is just a replay of things we recorded with cameras, and then played back to us on stuff like TVs." I explain, while I feel Taylor subconsciously nuzzles herself into my left side.

"That's pretty damn cool." Taylor comments, Belladoona nodding along with her friend in agreement. "I know, right? And there's a whole lot of stuff we can watch on it, too." Alita adds, the Unfezant already fixated on the screen as she waits for Chell to come to a decision.

"Alright, this one!" Chell announces, flipping over to the film of her choice as I sneak a peek over to Taylor. She just so happens to be looking back at me, and averts her gaze while blushing. "Look away, you ass! This is embarrassing..." She mumbles, while I move my hand over to gently pet her back.

"Sure. I'll just keep comforting you like this, though. Who knows, you might miss my touches." I reply, which gets me a nudge in the side. "You're such an ass." The Sewaddle huffs as she glares my way, which gets me to chuckle. "But this ass cares about you." I remind her, looking away from her flustered expression just as the movie starts.

 **Oh shit, guess who's back! Yup, it's me. Sorry for being so tardy (For like a month, holy shit), but I needed to rest after exams. AND, I realized that my Management score wasn't as good as I though it would be. Real sad about that, but I won't let that stop me from writing up more shit! So, hope all of you enjoyed this. Sorry this wasn't something action filled, because I needed to make sure this was going the way I needed it to go. Anyways, hope you're all having a swell day! Mine could be better, but eh.**

 **Hello again after so damn long,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Liligant)**

 **-Dani (Whimsicott)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	89. Chapter 86

Chapter 86

[Jay]

"Alright, we're finally here." I sigh, plopping my things down as I finally reach the table I wanted. We're in the dining hall right now, and my team has followed me all the way to our destination. Once we're there, Safia lets loose a long sigh as well. She looks as tired as I am, if not more disheveled.

"Oh man, I thought we weren't gonna make it for a second there." The Zoroark sighs, while pull out a chair for her to sit in. "Thanks, Jay." The lupine mumbles, slumping onto the table with a soft bang. Not one to waste time, I pull out a chair for Leah while I let Belladonna and Taylor onto the table.

"Ah, thank you Jay. I could use some rest after that ordeal." The Lucario breathes a sigh of relief, sitting down to relax next to Safia. Everyone else looks more or less as tired as she is, while Nova can't help but let her eyes dart nervously around the packed area.

"Hey, now. No need to be so tense, Nova." I speak to the Volcarona, reaching out to pat her head in an attempt to calm her down. "Ah!" Nova gasps and jumps a little when my hand makes contact, but quickly realizes that it's only me and calms down a little.

"I know, but seeing all of these people does not help in the slightest." The Fire Moth Pokemon weakly replies, unable to take her eyes off of the crowds for more than five seconds. She's even shaking a little bit now, as if expecting them to pounce on her at any given moment.

"Don't worry about them, alright? If they even think about touching you, I'll make sure to kick all of their asses." I assure Nova, who nods once she hears me say that. "But there are a lot of people here, Jay. Are you sure?" She asks me, to which I raise an eyebrow playfully at her response.

"Hey now, don't you trust me? I have the skills to back that up, I swear. Besides, I'm pretty sure everyone else won't leave you hanging either." I remind the Volcarona, who gains a somber look and averts my gaze as she hears me out.

"Thank you, Jay. It must be hard, having to care for a Pokemon who is terrified of humans." Nova whispers as she looks to me, her tone sounding guilty. Man, she's really beating herself up about it. In reply, I pat her head comfortingly.

"No worries, Nova. I get it, ya know. Humans are pretty scary sometimes, but I'll make sure none of the scary ones get you." I tell her, getting her to look my way again while I hear her let out a series of clicking sounds in response to my head pats.

"Thank you, Jay." She replies as her face heats up to a light shade of pink, her flustered expression making her seem that much cuter. Hell, how does a bug even look so god damn adorable!? This shouldn't be scientifically possible, for crying out loud!

"Seriously, this is crazy! Are you seeing all these people?" Dani complains, a look of disbelief on her face as she looks around to see nothing but group after group of people. "I know, right? Sheesh, this is annoying!" Belladonna sighs, the Venipede not any less irritated by the crowds.

"Ah'll say. We're packed in here tighter than sardines in a can!" Cleo grumbles, the Flaafy looking quite peeved at the lack of available personal space that she's getting. "Ugh, why are there so many fucking people around here!?" Taylor groans, the Sewaddle quite annoyed herself due to the amount of time she had to spend clinging to my chest for dear life.

"Well, it's dinner time. People that have rented out the rooms here are gonna want to grab a bite, not to mention people from other parts of town that are just too lazy to find another place to eat." I remind the Bug Type, which gets Belladonna to send me a confused look.

"Then can't we just find another place to eat?" The Venipede asks me, making Alita look to me in realization of that little detail. "Oh, yeah! We could have just found somewhere else, you idiot!" The Unfezant adds as she glares my way, to which I shake my head.

"Nah, we can't. If people are coming here, then that means that everywhere else is more or less packed. Besides, it costs more money to eat here. Do you really think people wanna eat here that often?" I explain to the two Pokemon, as I raise an eyebrow their way.

"Besides, whose fault was it to watch an extra movie right after of the previous one? Because I knew we'd miss the chance to enjoy a crowd-free dinner, my plan was just to watch one movie. But no, you guys just had to watch another one." I deadpan as I remind the team, which gets almost everyone present to either look away in embarrassment or blush guiltily.

"But those movies were way to good to pass up! All of that fighting, and not to mention those explosions!" Dani replies as her eyes light up, the Whimsicott not regretting her choice in the slightest. Seriously, she doesn't even seem the tiniest bit guilty. "Agreed. They were quite thrilling." Katrina adds, the Liepard siding with the Grass Type immediately for this one.

"Yeah, you idiot! It's kind of your fault for letting us see the first movie, anyways!" Alita huffs, although she does seem a little guilty for having enjoyed the second one. "To be fair, those movies were way too cool to not watch." Belladonna adds as she averts her gaze from mine, trying really hard to justify her reason for watching those superheroes fly about and kick ass.

"H-hey! The first movie was seriously good, okay!? I just had to know what happened after that!" Taylor defends herself, while Lily and Nova simply avert their gazes. "Sorry, Sir..." Lily mumbles sadly as she casts her gaze downward, Nova following suit.

"My apologies, Jay." The Fire Moth adds, neither Pokemon willing to look up at me. "Hey, now. Neither of you are at fault here, so lighten up. Besides, there was no way I could have mustered the strength to say no to you two. You're both way too cute." I reply, patting both of their heads and getting them to smile again.

"Really?" Lily asks, to which I nod. "Yup. I'm serious about this, Lily." I reply, which makes the Grass Type smile a little wider. "I'm glad you think that I'm cute..." The Liligant trails off, her face heating up even more as she receives the compliment. "Thank you for the kind words, Jay." Nova smiles warmly, coming closer and nuzzling me affectionately.

"But, I've gotta agree with 'em there. Those movies were pretty good, right sis?" Safia speaks up with a grin, the Zoroark turning her face over on the table to look at the Lucario. "...Yes. They were very enjoyable." The jackal replies after a little bit of alternating her gaze between me and her half sister, her expression quite guilty looking as she admits to enjoying the films.

"Well, no. Chell picked the first movie, and you guys just begged me to let you watch the second one. How could I have said no to any of you?" I retort, which gets said Dewott to grow a mite sheepish as she hears me say that. "Sorry about that, ehehehe…" She rubs the back of her head, looking quite apologetic as she turns to me.

"Not that I blame you though, kiddo. I don't blame any of you for wanting to watch more. Heck, I fell in love the first time I watched 'em." I reply, chuckling as I think back to those two Avengers movies that we binge-watched in rapid succession. Man, the minds behind those flicks really know their stuff.

"Uh huh! Those heroes were really cool!" Chell nods in agreement, nodding rapidly and pumping a fist out of sheer excitement. "I know, right!? The guy with the hammer was shooting lightning everywhere, and the big green guy was jumping everywhere and smashing everything up! It was so freaking awesome!" Dani joins in on the describing, the Grass Type now just as hyped as Chell is.

"And did you see how the green guy killed that giant flying metal thing with one punch!? It was so badass!" Alita crows, the Unfezant now joining in on the fan girl train. She actually cursed when she saw that, she was that excited.

"Well, the second one was just as awesome! With all those robots getting beat up, and the part where the bad guy got destroyed by those combined beams were beyond cool!" Taylor adds, the Sewaddle getting into the conversation herself as she grins widely.

"Even the two humans with no powers were cool! Man, they were seriously brave to fight with the others!" Belladonna speaks up, her own opinion getting Katrina to nod in agreement. "Those two were quite courageous indeed, to fight against such powerful foes without any powers to speak of." The Liepard agrees with the Venipede, while Nesia simply nods with a smile.

"But, let's not forget where Loki got slammed into the ground by the Hulk! It was hilarious!" Safia laughs out loud, unable to wipe the grin off her face as she remembers where the trickster got absolutely wrecked by the not so jolly green giant. I remember quite a few members of the team laughing aloud once they saw that, myself included.

"The fight scenes were sumthin' else, Ah tell ya! Made it real hard ta believe that they didn't really have all those crazy powers." Cleo chuckles, having been blown away by the sheer awesomeness that those special effects generated. The team actually asked me halfway through whether they really had those abilities, which ended in one hell of a laughing fit for me.

"Thank you, Sir." The Liligant nods my way as I pull out a chair for her, before I hoist Chell and Nesia up onto the table due to a distinctive lack of chairs. "No problem, milady." I chuckle, bowing lightly in the direction of the Grass Type and getting her all flustered again. Well, it's not like she isn't fun to tease.

"Thanks, Mister Jay!" Chell's usual cheerful demeanor has been toned down, hidden as she surveys the people around us. It would seem that evolving did equip her with a mild increase to the seriousness her species is know for. However, that doesn't stop a small smile from forming on her face as I lift her up onto the table, Nesia also looking my way with a smile of her own.

"Thanks a bunch, Jay." Cleo thanks me as soon as I lift her onto the table, to which I nod in response. With that done I turn to help Katrina and Nova, but I see that we have run out of chairs to sit on. Welp, this is annoying.

"Nova, you and Kat can share my chair. There aren't any left, and I don't think anyone here's gonna be nice enough to share." I speak up, getting out of my chair as I turn to the Volcarona and the Liepard. However, Katrina simply shakes her head in reply to my offer.

"There is no need for you to relinquish your seat, Jay. I do not mind having to wait around around for a little while." The Liepard speaks up, Nova shaking her head as well. "I also have no qualms with staying where as I am, Jay." Nova replies, the Volcarona politely declining the offer as well.

"Then, we have a slightly more pressing problem. How the heck do I get seats for all three of us?" I question aloud, looking at the table in hopes of finding an answer. "Jay, you really don't have to..." Nova starts, but I hold up a finger to my mouth.

"Ah, ah, ah. None of that talk, please. It's only fair if you get the same things I do." I tell her, which gets Katrina to giggle as she shakes her head. "There's no use talking him out of it, Nova. He is always far too concerned about our well being for any of us to suggest otherwise." The Liepard smiles, to which Chell nods her head in agreement.

"Kat's right, Nova. Mister Jay won't ever leave us behind!" The Dewott adds, beaming at the Volcarona. "Yes. Husband cares a lot about us." Nesia affirms her friend's statement, a small smile gracing her features as she looks to me affectionately.

"He's a weirdo, but he sure won't leave any of us hanging." Dani speaks up, the Whimsicott throwing in her two cents about the matter with a wry grin. "Jay is really kind and considerate." Leah adds, the Lucario looking my way with a smile. Once she realizes I'm looking at her though, she quickly averts her gaze from mine with a blush.

"Y'all could say that again! He's one helluva softie, an' a carin' one at that." Cleo grins, a small blush starting to paint her cheeks. "Can't really argue with that. He just can't keep his nose out of our business." Safia sighs in feigned annoyance, shaking her head as she grins my way.

"He's… fine, I guess." Taylor mumbles, sounding like that was directed more to herself than to anyone else. "Are you sure about that?" Belladonna asks the Sewaddle, a questioning look on her face as she looks to the other Bug Type.

"Y-yeah, of course I'm sure!" Taylor stutters for a second, glaring at the Venipede defensively. In response, Belladonna simply gives her a confused look. Meanwhile, I can't help but think back to the Deerling when the topic of me caring for everyone is brought up. I hope she's alright...

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's a really thoughtful guy." The Unfezant adds, her choice of words making me grin. "Hey, you didn't call me an idiot! Does this mean I'm more important to you now?" I tease the Flying Type, to which I see her face go beet red.

"Shut up, you idiot! Weren't you doing something!?" Alita yells at me indignantly, which gets me to chuckle. "Alright, alright. Just wondering, that's all." I reply, to which she turns her head away from me with a groan. However, she does look back over to me after a few seconds of outright ignoring me.

"I hate you." She mumbles, not much anger in her voice at all. In fact, her eyes reflect a look of uncertainty. Leaning closer to her, I whisper in her ear so that only she can hear. "And I love you too, Alita." I address her by her full name this time, hopefully insinuating the seriousness of those words.

"Jay..." Alita whispers, a ghost of a smile tugging at the ends of her beak as her face flushes a shade of red. "Ooh, what'd he say to you?" Safia, not one to pass up the chance for a potential tease, presses the issue with a cheeky grin and a nudge to the Unfezant's side.

"None of your business!" The Flying Type huffs, quickly dodging the question with a dismissive attitude. "Aw, come on Ali! Just spill, what'd he say?" Dani adds, the Whimsicott also wishing to have some fun with this little detail.

"I said no! Now, just leave me alone!" Alita growls, not willing to talk to the two tricksters. Seeing her flushed face, both the Zoroark and Whimsicott share a laugh at her expense. As I shake my head at their conversation, it falls to Taylor to remind me of what we came here for.

"Are we gonna eat now, or what? I'm pretty fucking hungry over here!" The Sewaddle speaks up, getting my attention and making me sigh when I realize that I had forgotten one of the more important aspects of staying alive. Seriously, how the heck did I forget dinner!?

"Oh, yeah, dinner. Okay, I'll need to know what you girls feel like eating." I start, grabbing the menu from the middle of the table and taking a look. "Well we have berries, raw fish and some meats like chicken. What sounds good?" I list out the choices, Katrina quickly using her tail to poke at the fish.

"Fish would be delightful right now, Jay." She tells me, to which I nod. "Sure thing, Kat. Raw?" I ask, the feline nodding in reply. "Ooh, I want fish sticks! Fish sticks, Mister Jay!" Chell excitedly tells me, getting me to grin in light of her reaction.

"Right, right. Fish sticks for you, then. Want hotdogs with that?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow with my suggestion. "Yay! Hotdogs too, please!" Chell quickly adds that to her list, not even giving it a second thought. She has a black hole for a stomach, I swear.

"Ah'm feelin' like sum veggies this time, Jay." Cleo tells me, to which I nod. "Alright, I hear ya. Fresh veggies, coming up." I tell her, getting her to grin. "Husband, I want the chicken. Some berries sound good, too." Nesia quickly says to me, gently pulling my arm to get my attention. "Right, sure thing." I chuckle, patting her head and getting her to sigh happily as she nuzzles my hand in turn.

"Meat. All the meat, Jay! All of it!" Safia speaks up, not even hesitating to think about the other foods. "Alright, gotcha. Meat's the best, any day of the week." I grin, the lupine nodding with a grin of her own. "Hell yeah!" She affirms my opinion, while Leah remains uncertain.

"Ali, does the berry salad sound good?" I ask the Unfezant, who nods as soon I bring that up. "Yeah, that'd be great." She smiles, to which I tap my head. "Alright, one order of salad for my lovely Unfezant." I reply teasingly, which gets her to blush a shade of bright red.

"Oh my god, shut up!" She groans, although she doesn't seem to hate being called that. In fact, she's smiling. I can't help but take note of Taylor's look of envy towards the Flying Type whole we have our little conversation, though.

"Hmm? Sup, Taylor?" I ask the Sewaddle, who quickly jumps as soon as I address her. "Nothing! I just so happened to look at you, that's all!" The Bug Type denies her actions, turning away quickly as she looks the other way. Seeing her friend like this, Belladonna decides to approach her friend.

"Are you sure that's all it was, or were you thinking about something else? You have been acting kinda weird, ever since you got that time together with Jay." The Venipede asks, before a look of realization crosses her face as she connects the dots.

"Are you just jealous of Ali, Taylor?" The Poison and Bug Type Pokemon asks the Grass and Bug Type, who freezes as her face turns a shade of red. "Hell no, Bella! Who the fuck would be jealous of this ass being all mushy with her!?" Taylor denies, turning away with a huff. Belladonna simply stares at her friend, a knowing grin spread out on her face now.

"So, want some meat or berries? Or both?" I ask the two Bug Types, the Venipede humming in thought before conveying a shrug even though she lacks the shoulders and the limbs to do so. "Eh, both. I just wanna see what's good and what isn't." She decides, Taylor nodding offhandedly in agreement.

"Alright, sure thing. You guys made a choice yet?" I turn to Nova, Lily, Dani and Leah in hopes of finding an answer, but their faces tell me that they remain undecided. "I really dunno, Jay. I can't really choose without knowing what stuff looks like, ya know?" Dani tells me, the Whimsicott thinking with a look of uncertainty on her face.

"I don't think I can decide on which food to eat, either. There's simply too much I do not know." Leah frowns, getting Lily to shake her head to affirm the Lucario's statement. "I do not think I will be able to choose anything either, Jay." Nova admits after a slight pause, shaking her head with a miffed look on her face.

"Well, then I know the perfect solution to this problem!" I answer, slamming my hand onto my palm as I think of an idea. "You four just tag along, see what interests you. I need to walk around the place if I wanna get the food everyone else wanted, anyways." I suggest, getting Dani to nod.

"Yeah, sounds good. Let's move!" The Whimsicott replies, getting up and using her own light weight and cotton to float up into the air. "Alright, then I'll join you." Leah speaks up, getting out of her chair as Nova takes flight with her six wings. As I'm closer to Lily right now, I move to pull her chair away from the table.

"Sir?" Lily yelps upon feeling me move her chair, unsure of what I'm trying to accomplish. "You are coming with us, right? I just thought I'd be a gentleman and help you out of your chair." I tell the Liligant, holding out my hand to help her up. She does end up taking my hand with her own, albeit with a blush on her face.

"Oh, okay. Thank you, Sir!" She mumbles, smiling cutely as she accepts my gesture. God, she's so damn cute! She's so cute, that I can't help but reach out and pat her on the head. "U-um..." Lily trails off in confusion, feeling the touch of my hand on her soft leafy head.

"You're way too cute, you know that?" I tell her, causing her to become even more flustered as her gaze turns downward in order to avoid mine. "O-oh, thank you..." She mumbles, her smiles still slightly visible under her leafy hair.

"Ahem!" I suddenly hear Alita cough, getting me to turn and look at the Unfezant. She's got a look of irritation on her face, while Safia simply smirks. "Could you quit flirting with her for a minute and get us some grub? Yeesh, we're dying over here!" The Zoroark exaggerates, while Taylor simply rolls her eyes.

"Ugh, enough of that mushy stuff already! Just go, you ass!" The Sewaddle groans, to which I hold up my hands defensively. "Alright, alright. Geez, someone's impatient." I sigh, quickly turning to leave the premise with my four team members in tow.

"Alright, so our first place of interest is the salad bar. It's the place where all berries and veggies reside, after they've been considered safe to eat. All the stuff here is fresh, so you know it's good to eat." I speak up, walking over to the salad bar and taking a look around.

"Whoa, there's a whole bunch of berries here!" Dani gasps, immediately pressing herself to the glass and drooling as she looks at the assorted berry piles. "Those plants do look quite nice." Nova adds, the Volcarona eyeing the vegetables hungrily as her mandibles twitch.

"They look really tasty…" Lily comments, having taken to staring at the food with a look of longing. Meanwhile, Leah seems indifferent to the berries and vegetables. Well, Lucario are carnivorous Pokemon, so that's understandable.

"Hey, buddy. Could you get me two Berry Salads and a Caesar Salad, without the dressing? With extra Cheri Berries, please." I request, the guy nodding and moving over to grab three bowls and filling them with various berries and veggies. Then after he makes sure to add some more Cheri Berries on top, he hands the bowls over to me.

"Alright, how much'll that be?" I ask the guy, who gestures to the sign. Not really much of a talker, this guy. "26 dollars, huh? Sure thing." I nod, pulling out my wallet and handing the guy the money in coins. After that, I poke Lily and Dani, the three Pokemon having been too distracted by the prospect of food in front of them to notice what I was doing.

"Here ya go. One bowl of berries for you to share." I tell the Whimsicott and the Liligant, seeing both their eyes light up immediately at the sight of the berries. "Aw, sweet! Thanks a lot, Jay!" Dani grins, using her small appendages to grab a hold of a Sitrus Berry and biting into it.

"Mmm, it's sho shweet!" The Grass and Fairy Type moans with a borderline euphoric look on her face, satisfied by the taste of the delicious yellow berry in her mouth. She doesn't even seem to care about the juices dribbling from the corners of her mouth, either.

"Thank you!" Lily nods gratefully, before using her hand to grab an Oran Berry and popping into her mouth. "Mmm…!" The Liligant gasps in delight, chewing on the berry and letting some juice dribble down her chin. Meanwhile, I decide to look over to Leah.

"Wanna taste?" I offer the bowl to the Lucario, who shakes her head. "I don't wish to partake in these berries as of now, Jay. Maybe sometime later." The jackal replies, getting me to shrug. As I let them eat their fill, I turn to address Nova.

"Here ya go. One bowl of salad for you, Nova." I tell the Volcarona, showing her the bowl of assorted vegetables. "Are those really for me?" She asks, making me raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, duh. Anyone else who's called Nova around here?" I ask her rhetorically, to which she promptly flies over and latches onto my chest area.

"Jay, thank you so much!" Nova squeals, looking quite happy as she nuzzles my chest. "Whoa, calm down for a second! I'll drop it!" I laugh, patting the excited Fire Moth on the head. On top of being quite furry, she is decently heavy. Kinda weird that I only notice this now, though.

"Oh, right! My apologies, Jay." Nova quickly gets the message, pulling away with a blush on her face as she does so. "Eh, no harm done. Besides, there's no need to apologize for being cute." I reply, rubbing the Fire Moth's horns. As I do so, she takes to nuzzling my hand. However, a certain pair of Grass Types making a mess of their faces catches my attention.

"Come on, you two. You got your faces all messed up. Come on, let's get you cleaned." I chuckle, shaking my head in slight amusement as I take a napkin and use it to wipe the juice trails from their mouths. Lily is a little surprised at the sudden contact with her cheeks, but blushes as soon as she realizes what I'm doing.

"Ack, come on Jay. I'm not a kid, you know." Dani frowns, looking a little peeved at the fact that I had cleaned her face. "Nobody said I was treating you like one, Dani. Juice dries quick, and gets super sticky and annoying later. Looking out for you and your face, that's all." I reply, which gets the Whimsicott to become a little flustered as she hears me out.

"You're such a weirdo, you know that?" Dani sighs, although I do notice her face getting a little flushed as she gives me a wry grin. "Eh, I know. But, you can't say I don't care about ya." I shoot back, shrugging and getting the Whimsicott to laugh. "True." She admits, before I realize something.

"Shoot, we gotta go. We're kinda holding up the line." I sweat drop, having finally taken notice of the people waiting behind us for their own salads. As the person behind the salad bar gives me a raised eyebrow along with an amused smile, the guy behind me isn't as understanding.

"Hey, dumbass. Could you and your pets move it already? I want to eat something before I die of old age." The guy growls, to which I roll my eyes before facing him. I know I'm kinda being a dick about this, but there's honestly no need for him to be a dick about it too.

"Yeah, sure thing. I'll just get outta your face." I reply, turning around to take a good look at the guy before I go. However, what I see in front of me makes my eyes widen. To anyone else, he just looks to be the average rich prick with shades. But, he looks kind of familiar. I think I've seen him before…

"Hey, have we met before?" I raise an eyebrow in suspicion, looking at the guy a little more intently. "Uh, no? What's it to you, weirdo? Now piss off, I wanna get some food." He replies, although his tone of voice does sound a little strained, almost forced. He also looks a mite surprised to see me.

"Sure thing, asshat. And by the way," I start, pointing to my Pokemon. "They're not pets, moron. If you had half a mind, you'd show 'em a little more respect." I tell him in response, before turning to my Pokemon. "Come on, guys. We should get going. No need to make rude little shits all worked up about stuff this trivial." I spit one last insult his way, before taking my leave.

"Ugh, the nerve of that guy!" Dani growls, already looking quite pissed as she floats alongside me. "I didn't like the attitude of that human too much, either." Leah grits her teeth, face set into a glare most likely directed at the rich kid. In light of their comments, I just shake my head and sigh.

"Well, not much we can do about that. Some people just aren't as patient as others." I shrug, before Nova's comment catches my attention. "Is there something bothering you, Lily?" The Volcarona asks the Liligant, to which I look over and see the look of uncertainty on her face.

"I'm not too sure, but something about that person looked familiar to me..." The Grass Type tells us, making me raise an eyebrow. "You thought so too, huh?" I speak up, Lily looking to me in surprise. "You too, Sir?" I nod in response to her question, which gets Leah and Dani to look at us with confused expressions.

"Wait, what are you talking about? Who looked familiar?" The Whimsicott asks me, which gets me to think back to the guy that had just confronted us. "You know that guy who just told me to piss off? Well, I feel like I've seen him once before." I explain, mulling it over for a bit longer before I shrug.

"Eh, maybe I just so happened to remember his face in a crowd we passed by somewhere." I conclude, not really being able to come up with a better answer than that. "Strange. I don't seem to recall any time where I saw that particular human before." Leah adds, which gets a nod from Nova. "Nor do I, Lily." The Volcarona admits, getting Dani to nod.

"Well, maybe it isn't that important. I mean, you don't really remember where you saw 'em, right?" The Grass and Fairy Type suggests, which gets Lily to sigh with a worried look on her face. "I don't know, Dani. What if he's a bad guy?" The Liligant says, quite nervous about the whole thing.

"Hey, now. Don't worry about it too much, alright? If he really is a bad guy, then we'll deal with him if he tries to fight us." I assure Lily, giving her a smile and a thumbs up. "Yeah! If he tries to mess with us, we'll kick his ass!" Dani grins, the Whimsicott giving her friend a comforting pat on the back.

"Do not worry about it too much, Lily. I am sure we will be able to fight him off." Nova tries to comfort the Liligant as well, while Leah nods in response. "We'll be able to defend ourselves from him, even if he is bad. So, don't be too worried about him." The Lucario adds, getting Lily to nod.

"Okay, if you say so." She replies, although she does still seem a little worried about the potentially evil nature of the guy. As such, I think of something to change the subject. "Do you know the thing that's really important right now, though?" I ask, to which Lily gives me a confused look.

"What is it?" She asks me, making me point to the assorted meats before us. "Getting the food back to our table! I dunno about you, but I sure as hell don't want to face the wrath of a bunch of hungry Pokemon." I gulp, doing an exaggerated shudder.

"Yeah, we should get moving. Now that you mention it, I really don't wanna die. But, I'm pretty sure Jay'll take most of the blame." Dani adds, getting me to share a laugh with the Whimsicott. However, I do get chills up my spine at the thought of pranks concocted by a pair of vengeful Dark Types, and the combined pain that a pissed Unfezant and Sewaddle could deliver.

"Then we must hurry, everyone! We must save Jay from such a horrible fate!" Leah gasps, actually having taken Dani's words literally. She's serious about all the training and is quite nice, but god is she gullible. In response to her reaction, Dani is taken aback for a bit before she bursts into fits of giggling.

"Come on, Leah! It was just a joke!" The Whimsicott chokes out between laughs, to which I grin wryly and pat the jackal atop her head. Meanwhile, Lily stifles a giggle with her hand, while Nova shakes her head and chuckles. "Rest assured, Leah. Jay is not in any sort of peril." The Volcarona assures the Lucario, while I nod to affirm her words.

"Leah, we were joking. I'm not in any actual danger." I chuckle, which gets the Lucario to blush in embarrassment as she realizes that she had overreacted again. "Oh, I see." She replies, seeming a little downtrodden that she had been laughed at for her efforts to help me.

"I do appreciate the concern, though. Thanks, Leah." I nod to the jackal, whose eyes widen before she looks to me with her flushed face. "You're welcome, Jay." She replies, a small smile forming on her face as she receives my thanks.

"Now, come on! I need to get that fish, and we need to get back to the rest of the team!" I tell the four Pokemon present, before taking off to grab a plate and filling it with food. Some raw fish, a butt load of hot dogs and fish sticks, and some chicken on the side, along with some beef slices for good measure. I'll also grab some veggies while I'm at it, and a particular one catches my eye.

"Ah, pak choi. Freaking loved this as a kid." I sigh, placing some of the broiled vegetable onto my plate. "Jay, what's that?" Leah asks me, pointing to a tray with cooked meat on skewers. "Ah, those are kebabs. They're basically meat with vegetables, cooked on sticks." I tell the jackal, who nods as she looks at them with interest and hunger.

"Why not just take some with us?" I suggest, Leah looking to me with uncertainty. "Are you sure about this? I really don't need them, Jay." She shakes her head, to which I hand her a plate. Which is a hard feat, considering all the other plates of food I was balancing with one hand.

"Yeah, but you want 'em, right? That's a good enough reason to pick it up and put it on your plate. Besides, you're not causing me any trouble if you hold your plate yourself." I reply, before stacking another plate with some more beef.

"Okay, then." Leah replies, stacking a plate with the meat as I finish up. "Alright, gang. Let's head on back. I wanna eat, and I'm pretty sure you do too." I suggest, Dani quickly floating off on her own. "You got that right!" She grins, Lily running off after the Whimsicott with a plate of vegetables.

"Wait for me, Dani!" The Liligant cries out, quickening her pace and causing me to look over to Nova and Leah. "Come on, you two. Can't let them wander too far off, right?" I sigh, getting Nova to nod. "I suppose not." She giggles, increasing the speed of her flight as she follows after the two Grass Types with the Lucario and I close behind.

"You're late, you idiot!" Alita sighs as soon as I reach the table, making me sigh. "Well, you guys did tell me to get a ton of food. So, kinda not my fault." I reply, before placing the food down at the table. "But first, let me sit down." I sigh, lowering myself onto my chair.

"Pbbbbblt..."

"Wait, what?" I deadpan with a blush of embarrassment, hearing a farting sound as soon as my butt hits the seat. As if on cue, Safia and Dani burst out laughing. "Oh my god, that was amazing!" The Zoroark laughs, as Katrina giggles with a paw to her mouth.

"Aw man, that was sumthin' else!" Cleo chuckles as she wipes a tear from her eye, while Chell giggles with a finger pointing at my seat. "The whoopee cushion was perfect!" She laughs, before Safia reaches over and taps me on the shoulder.

"Watch out, Jay. Sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the seats." She tells me, reciting that initial quote that I had told Chell. Wait, that writing on the cushion… This one is mine! It's even got my name on it in messy lettering!

"Wait, you were all in on this!? How'd you even get my whoopee cushion!?" I gawk, before Safia and Katrina eye me with a cheeky grin. "Taking items off of your person is child's play, when you are distracted with Lily." The Liepard explains, to which I face palm. "Son of a..." I trail off, although I can't help but grin myself. They got me good, so I'll let this one slide.

 **Ah, shit! Sorry for the late upload again, guys! Sorry about this, but I feel like I'm running out of steam for this story lately. Don't worry, I'll continue whenever possible. Can't let you guys down too much, after all. But, juggling this many characters around isn't easy, and plot points are making my head spin right now. Not to mention, college is crazy now that I'm back. So, juggling study, gaming and this is kinda mission impossible here. I'll try my damnedest to make it work, though! And as usual, hope all of you are having a great day!**

 **Yours truly and thank you,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Liligant)**

 **-Dani (Whimsicott)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


	90. Chapter 87

Chapter 87

[Jay]

"Aw man, I'm stuffed!" Dani grins, the now grounded Whimsicott patting her now slightly bloated belly with a contented sigh. "Ah'll say. This stuff was great! Thanks a bunch fer the food, Jay." Cleo tells me, the Flaafy nodding my way as she sits there patting her full belly.

"Heh, no worries Cleo." I reply, my plate currently devoid of any food. Everyone's plates are just about empty, and we're enjoying our full stomachs. Well, except for Chell and Nova. They're still busy eating because Chell is Chell, and Nova is just a bit slower than we are.

"I didn't expect you two to eat as much as you did, to be honest." I tell the two Pokemon, getting Dani to grin my way. "Well, a stretchy body helps a lot." She replies, Cleo looking at me with a raise eyebrow. "Ah dunno what yer talkin' about, Jay. This is what Ah usually eat back home." She tells me, to which I grin wryly.

"Seriously? And the other Mareep ate as much as you?" I ask the Electric Type, who nods. "Yup! We'd kinda fight fer food a little, since some a' us would want sum more ta munch on every now an' then." She explains, making me look her way in disbelief.

"How the hell Joey's grandpa fed all of you daily is a mystery to me. I mean, I'm having a hard time with just Chell." I shake my head, getting the Flaafy to laugh. "Well, at least there ain't more of 'er ta deal with." She replies, to which I nod.

"Eh, true. She's got one fur-rocious appetite, that's for sure." I joke, making Cleo snort as she hears the pun. "Heh, not bad timin' there Jay." She chuckles, getting me to grin. "Welp, that's my job after all." I reply, Alita glaring at me from where she's roosted.

"You're lucky I can't hit you from here, Jay." She growls at me, making me give her a cheeky grin. "I know I am, Ali. This way, I can ruffle your feathers all I want." I laugh, which gets the Unfezant to groan in exasperation. She usually tries to hide her feelings, but that just makes her cuter. Am I a masochist for liking someone who slaps me upside the head a lot? Eh, probably.

"I swear to god, you idiot! Stop making those puns!" The Flying Type yells, to which Dani laughs. "Nice going, Jay! Her reactions are priceless!" The Whimsiciott snickers, getting me to throw her a thumbs up. My fellow prankster appreciates my efforts, and we share a mutual feeling of victory.

"Delicious. Thank you, Husband." Nesia speaks up, the Servine smiling at me as she rests atop the table with her own full stomach. Chell is still eating like crazy however, and shows no signs of stopping her genocide of the various hot dogs and fish sticks in front of her.

"Heh, no worries Ness. Man, you feel a little heavier." I chuckle, lifting the Grass Type up off her place on the table and into my lap. "Jay?" The Servine looks to me, making me grin as I gently rub her filled belly. She sighs happily as she feels my hands touch her body, nuzzling against me.

"You'll need somewhere soft to rest up after a good meal, right? And last I checked, the table doesn't exactly fit the bill." I chuckle, my hand now moving to her head and giving that a few gentle strokes as well. "Such a caring husband." Nesia smiles, receiving my affectionate gestures happily as she lays there in my lap.

"All because I love ya, Ness." I grin as I lift her head slightly upwards, planting a kiss atop her scaly snout. "Jay..." Nesia breathes, before she places her vines on my shoulders. Moving my head a tiny bit lower, she then proceeds to kiss me on my own nose.

"A kiss for you." She speaks up, although her face does look quite flushed, and she looks nervous. Maybe she's worried that she didn't do it right. "Don't worry, Ness. I don't mind you doing that. I think that was seriously cute." I tell her, patting her head and seeing her smile in relief.

"I'm glad you liked it, Husband. I love you, too." She replies, her eyes staring into mine as I continue to stroke her body gently. "Ugh, you pervert." Alita grumbles, making me raise an eyebrow. "And how is this perverted in any way?" I ask the Unfezant, who huffs as she looks away.

"It just is, Jay! You know what you're doing!" She retorts angrily, getting me to shrug. She does sound a little jealous, though. "Here. Does this make things any better?" I ask the Unfezant, reaching over to stroke her head and neck.

"H-hey! What are you doing!?" The Flying Type hisses as she glares at me, before she relents and gives a few satisfied coos. "Well, I… I guess it does. This doesn't make you any less of a perv, though." Alita replies, averting her gaze as she tells me that. "But this pervert really cares about you, ya know?" I grin, making her face flush a beet red.

"D-don't say that here, you idiot!" Alita stutters, trying to hide her now red face from the others. Luckily for her, no one's paying her any attention. "Oh my God, how does everything here taste so damn good!?" Taylor speaks up, already munching on her seventh different item of food today.

"I know, right? It's crazy how good everything tastes here!" Belladonna affirms her friend's words as she munches on some meat, having long since tasted and devoured everything else I had handed her. They look just about done with dinner, though.

"Seriously, those two are really going at it!" Alita gawks at the two Bug Types, which makes me look her way with a wry grin. "Well, lucky for me that this is all you can eat, huh? Seriously, they might be on par with Chell!" I shake my head, before munching on some of my own food.

"Mister Jay, I want more ketchup!" Chell tells me, tugging at my sleeve to get my attention. "Sure thing, kiddo. Here ya go." I grin, taking the ketchup bottle from my hoodie pocket and squirting some of it's contents onto the plate for the hungry starter Pokemon.

"Yay! Thank you!" The Dewott cheers, before dipping some of her remaining fish sticks into the condiment and shoving the whole thing into her mouth. "Mm!" Chell chews as she savors the taste, voicing her delight behind her stuffed cheeks.

"It's good, right?" I chuckle and ruffle her head, unable to resist the cuteness of her eating habits. "Mm hmm!" Chell nods and voices her approval, although the food stops her from actually vocalizing it. Heh, cute little Dewott.

"Uh, Jay? Is this normal for her?" Dani asks me, the Whimsicott poking my arm with her smaller appendage with a concerned look on her face. "Unfortunately for my wallet, yes. Where do you think all that extra meat from those meals we had together went?" I sigh, making the Grass and Fairy Type put a hand to her chin in though.

"Huh, never really thought about that." Dani admits, while I catch Leah gawking at the Dewott. "Jay, will her stomach end up bursting?" The Lucario asks me, concerned for the well being of her fellow teammate. "Nah. Trust me, she's not even done yet." I grin wryly, which gets the jackal to stare at the starter Pokemon in awe and disbelief.

"The food was delicious! Thank you, Sir!" Lily thanks me, the Lilligant sighing contentedly as she directs her attention to me and away from her now empty plate. In response, I simply smile her way. "Glad you enjoyed it, Lily." I reply, before I notice the dirtied corners of her mouth. Now that I look at it, the colors look like a five year old's art project. That's hilarious!

"Lily, there's berry juice lining your lips." I snicker, which gets the Grass Type to look at me in confusion. "There is?" She asks as she touches at her mouth, before realizing that I was telling her the truth. "Oh no! I didn't realize I made such a mess..." The Lilligant sighs, looking a little saddened that she had done so.

"Hah, your mouth's all colored now! It's kinda like a rainbow!" Dani laughs, seeing the variations of colored juice smeared over Lily's lips. Lily says nothing, simply covering her face in her hands out of sheer embarrassment. Sighing, I take a tissue from the dispenser on the table and wet it with water.

"Come here, Lily. Let me get rid of that stuff for you, so hold on." I offer, Lily nodding as she slowly removes her hands from her now reddened face. I slowly dab the napkin across her mouth, making sure to rub gently at the stains. I finish up soon, looking the Liligant over in case I missed something.

"Sorry for making you clean up my mess, Sir." Lily mumbles, the Lilligant averting her gaze from mine out of embarrassment and guilt. In response, I shake my head. "Come on, Lily. No need to apologize for something like this, okay? It's part of what makes you you, so I don't mind." I chuckle, getting the Grass Type to stare into my eyes with her own.

"...Really?" She tentatively asks me, which makes me grin. "Yeah, I don't mind one bit. You're freaking adorable, you work hard, and you're kind to everyone. What's not to like about you?" I shoot back at her, making her face flush an even deeper shade of red.

"Thank you, but I'm not sure about that." She replies, getting me to chuckle. "No, Lily. I'm serious, I swear. Hell, you're even nice to me. That's something I don't even really deserve." I laugh dryly, my comment seemingly sparking something in the timid Liligant and making her glare at me.

"No! I think that you do deserve it, Jay! I think you're an amazing person!" She speaks up, raising her voice to counter my words. To the normal bystander, it simply sounds like a normal volume of voice. But to me, her louder tone conveys just how much she means that.

"Aw, Lily. You saying that means a lot to me, so thanks for that." I smile warmly, patting the Liligant atop her head as I sniff. "Oh, no! I'm sorry I made you cry, Sir! I'm so sorry for raising my voice at you! I…!" Lily starts, looking like she's on the verge of tears herself before I shake my head.

"No, this isn't because I'm sad. I'm touched because I'm really freaking happy you think that way. You caring so much about me help, too." I reply, grinning as I address her. As I smile her way, I swear that my cheeks have heated up to a considerable shade of red.

"I'm glad you're happy, Sir." Lily tells me as a blush blooms on her cheeks as well, smiling as she looks at me. And god damn, that smile is one of the most heartwarming ever. It hits me right in the chest, an indescribably warm feeling spreading as my heart flutters.

"Ow!" However, a pained voice immediately grabs my attention. There's only one Pokemon I know who has that voice. "My god, what has she done this time?" I sigh, already knowing that Safia's somehow behind all this.

"Aw, come on Leah! Gimme some more!" Safia whines, having been caught-literally and figuratively- for the fifth time trying to swipe some of the Lucario's food from her plate. Of course she'd try that, that cheeky Zoroark. Not even her own sister is safe from her pilfering.

"No, Safia. You've already taken quite a bit from me, so go acquire your own." She replies with a slightly annoyed glance, chiding the Zoroark and releasing her paw. Safia looks to Leah with a pleading expression, pointing an accusatory claw at me.

"But Jay's looking out for their stuff, and Chell's eating too fast for me to even think about taking from her!" The lupine frowns, gesturing to the food vacuum that is the Dewott. She's eating so fast, that the food I gave her is already almost gone. She even had three stacked plates of food items on top of that, too. Crap, she works fast.

"You know you could've just tried to find the food yourself, right? Or you could've asked me to help?" I raise an eyebrow, to which Safia shakes her head. "But stealing it is so much more rewarding, though!" The lupine retorts, making Katrina nod in light of that little comment.

"I am inclined to agree, Jay. Stealing items successfully is quite the satisfactory activity." She affirms the Zoroark's words, getting Safia to grin. "See? She gets it, so why don't you?" She frowns at me in an exaggerated manner, to which I roll my eyes.

"There's two points you're missing here. One, I'm responsible if she steals the things of other people. Two," I begin, before swiftly reaching a hand out to grab the tail of the Liepard trying to take my wallet again. "I always keep an eye out, just in case she tries anything mischievous." I finish, before looking to the offending feline.

"Aw, poo. You are such a buzzkill, Jay." Katrina frowns, making me sigh as I let go of her tail. "I know, Kat. Would it help if I said I loved you, though?" I ask, making her smile as her tail curls around my hand. "It would make me much happier if you did say so, good sir." She replies, to which I chuckle.

"I love you, Katrina. How's that?" I tell her, kissing her on the nose and making her giggle. "Now, this is a much more desirable outcome of this failed heist of mine." She nods her approval, before planting her own quick and cheeky kiss on my cheek in return.

"In all seriousness, I would have gotten something for you if you asked." I tell Safia, whose grin falters for a moment. "Can you get me something now?" Safia asks me, her voice a little quiet this time around. "Yeah, sure. What'll it be?" I nod, waiting for the Zoroark's choice.

"I'll just have some more of what Leah's having, then." She tells me, getting me to chuckle and stand up with an empty plate. "Sure thing, Safia. Coming right up, so just wait for a bit." I reply, before I feel someone else tugging at my hoodie sleeve.

"Mister Jay, I wanna eat some more fish sticks! Gimme more fish sticks, please!" Chell asks me, the Dewott giving me a pleading grin as she hands me her empty plate. "Sure thing, kiddo. Ya asked nicely, so how can I refuse?" I reply, patting her on the head and making her giggle.

"Jay, I would like some more fish. Could you be so kind as to acquire some more for me?" Katrina speaks up, the Liepard tapping my shoulder with her tail to get my attention. "Yeah, sure thing." I nod, as Dani floats over to poke me in the arm.

"Hey Jay, could ya get me some more berries? I'm still feeling kinda hungry, if ya know what I mean." The Whimsicott asks me, to which I raise an eyebrow. "Sure thing, Dani." I reply, although I am a bit confused. Wasn't she finished with her food already? Eh, maybe she had second thoughts.

"Nova, you feel like anything else?" I ask the Volcarona, who shakes her head as she looks up from her half eaten slice of tomato. "I do not need more food, Jay. I will be just fine with what I have now." The large Fire Moth replies, which gets me to nod.

"Alright, then. But if you do need anything else, don't hesitate to ask." Jay tells her, rubbing her horn affectionately and getting her to sound of a few happy clicks. God, she's so adorable. Well, adorable as a massive bug can be, but still. "I will hold you to that, then." Nova replies, while I pick up Nesia and lift both of us off my seat.

"Ness, I'll need to leave you here for a bit. Gotta get food for everyone else, ya know?" I tell the Servine, who seems a bit dejected but nods regardless. Seeing her like this, I decide to remove my hoodie and put it on the seat I was in.

"Here ya go, Ness." I offer, placing her onto my clothing. "Husband?" The Grass Type starter Pokemon asks me, confused as to what I'm trying to do. "A nice place for you to rest on. The chair's too hard, so here's something nicer." I explain, making the Grass Snake smile warmly as she lays down onto it.

"No fair, Ness! I want in, too!" Chell frowns, pouting as she looks over from her now cleaned plate. "I agree with Chell, Nesia. This hardly seems fair." Katrina adds, the Liepard slinking over to get in on the hoodie snuggle. Nesia responds by clutching my hoodie close to her chest and glaring at the two, to which I sigh. She just won't give much leeway, huh?

"Just get along, you three. I gotta dash." I tell them, quickly taking my leave and walking towards the salad bar again. Man, those three are seriously vying for my attention. Chell and Katrina seem fine with the whole sharing thing, but Nesia isn't too happy about it. If I'm not careful, this might end up in a heated argument- or worse yet, a fight.

I reach the salad bar before I know it, walking up to the counter and lock eyes with the quiet guy again. "Hey, it's me again. Could you make me another Berry Salad without dressing again real quick?" I ask the guy, who nods and wastes no time in throwing together another bowl full of berries for me.

"Alright, thanks." I nod his way, handing him eight dollars. He gives a curt nod of his own, before handing me the salad and taking the money in exchange. A quiet guy, this one. With salad in hand, I make my way over to the other areas where food is being served.

"Alright, gotta find that fish." I mutter to myself, turning to the buffet tables and looking for the section with fish in it. While I put fish on my plate, my mind can't help but wander back to the guy that Lily recognized as familiar. I think I've seen him before, but I'm not too sure. This might actually be bad. What if he is dangerous, like Lily guessed? Hell, I'm too far away to rush to their aid right now…

"Wait a minute." I deadpan to myself, shaking my head. Everyone's gotten tougher, so they should have each other's backs. They'll be able to handle themselves if a situation occurs. Shaking my head, a grin graces my features as I wonder why I doubted them at all. They're not weak, Jay. Get a grip.

"Bzzzt..." However, the feeling of my TBA vibrating on my wrist catches my attention. "Huh?" I muse, raising an eyebrow as I look over to the screen on the gauntlet. A message for me, it reads. "From who?" I ponder aloud, tapping on the message to reveal the details.

"Oh, from Nurse Joy." I realize, seeing the obvious icon of her face next to her text. However, I do get a little laugh out of the name she picked. NerdyNeedyNursie? Heh, a tiny bit catchy. The words kinda link each other with their first letter, too. Okay, she's saying the Deerling's awake now.

"Eh, I can go check up on her." I shrug, taking my plates with me as I exit the dining hall and make my way over to the medical wing where they keep the newly treated Pokemon. Following the lines that trail along the floor, I soon find myself standing in front of the room that Nurse Joy had described.

"Looks like this is it." I confirm aloud to myself, stepping into the significantly whiter room. Seriously, I could go blind with all this white. And to top it all off, there's that weird smell that comes with hospitals. I dunno, they've always smelled weird to me. Having a look around, I see that there are various Pokemon, each of them resting in bed and snoozing softly.

"Welp, time to try and find that Deerling." I speak to myself, walking into the ward to look for her. "No, p-please! S-stay away!" I suddenly hear a frightened voice ring out in the room, followed by a yelp of pain. Peeking past a corner, I spy a certain Deerling shying away from Nurse Joy. Bingo.

[Deerling]

Where am I? I feel like I'm lying on something soft with weird smells around me, and I can hear something beeping next to me. The last thing I remember was a human helping me, but I don't know if he's here or not. What if he's like the others? What if he just took me to a bad place while I was sleeping? Just thinking about it makes me scared!

"H-h…!" I try to talk, and get someone to help me or even notice me. But when I try to open my mouth, no sound comes out. Just a weak noise, and that scares me even more. I think Mom and Dad talked about this before. Oh no, what if he did bad things to me so I can't talk!?

I'm scared, but I can't even say anything to save myself. I'm really scared now, my whole body shaking as I lay there on my side. Mama, please help me! I'm all alone, and I'm so scared…! As I think about my parents and how they told me to run away from the bad humans, I start crying.

As tears fall from my eyes, I curl up a little bit more. My eyes shut tighter, as I hope that Mom will come and save me. She always did, along with everyone else. They're my only family, and now I don't even know where they are or where I am…

As I cry softly, I suddenly hear something from behind me. "Huh?" Someone speaks up, as I hear tapping noises coming closer to where I am. It's not the sound of my Mom's feet, and I can only hear one pair of feet behind me. However, I smell something scary. Oh no, it's a human!

"Are you awake?" The human asks with a soft tone, as feel something big hover above me. What is it trying to do? As I think about it, the human suddenly gasps. "Oh, dear! Why are you crying, little one?" The human asks me, which makes me surprised. Why does it care about me crying?

"Here, let me get rid of those tears for you." She whispers, as I feel something touch my face. No, no, no! I don't… I don't want to die! I want to see Mama again! "No, p-please! S-stay away!" I yelp, quickly opening my eyes and getting up to run away from the human. But I'm too high up to jump off, so I can only look at the human with shaky legs.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I just need to check your injuries!" The human that touched me has a weird look, her body pink and white. But she looks worried, which surprises me. Why does she look so worried? "Heya." Just then, I hear another voice that wasn't from the human looking at me.

"Eek!" The human suddenly screams, which makes me scared too. I look around to see a bump next to me, and I hide under it. Oh, no! Was that another human? What are they going to do to me!? As my body begins shaking, I suddenly hear laughing.

"This is not funny!" The human shouts, as I hear the laughing get louder. What's happening? "The follow up not going as well, I see." I hear the other voice again. Why does it sound so familiar? "And you are not helping, Mister Williamson!"

"Just call me Jay. Mister Williamson is kinda lame, to be honest." I don't get it. Why are they talking to each other, and not hurting me? "Alright then, Jay." I hear one of them talk again, before they stop. Have they finally realized that I'm here?

"I'll help, Doc. I kinda did bring her here, right?" I hear the other human talk, before I hear footsteps stopping right in front of me. "Come on out, we're not gonna hurt you." The voice says, but it's much closer to me now. Oh, no, they know where I am!

"N-no! I don't trust you, human! Y-you're just trying to trick me!" I yell, now much more scared as I stay hidden. "If I really did want to trick you, I would have fed you poison instead of giving you that drink." The other human talks to me again, which makes me stop and think.

"What?" I ask quietly, thinking about what he had said. He fed me a drink…? Wait, when that human found me in the woods! That was him? "What did you feed her?" I hear the first human talk again, sounding more angry and serious.

"Hey, I didn't make her drink poison or anything. I just made her willow bark tea. And before you ask, I do know how to balance out the ratios so that she would get better. Besides, I would have put myself at risk if I hadn't gotten the ratios right. I drank that stuff days ago, mind you."

When he said that, I did not understand why. Why did he try and save me? Did he want me to hurt me? If he did, he wouldn't have to help me at all. He could have just hurt me back then, but he brought me here and tried to help me. The other pink human tried to help me, too. Maybe they aren't bad like the others...

I shake my head, quickly peeking out from the cave I was in. He might be trying to trick me, so I need to ask! "D...d..." I stutter once I see them, and nothing comes out of my mouth. I want to ask him, but I can't say anything. Why can't I make any sounds?

"Oh, hello." The other human waves to me, making me freeze up as I become more scared. He's blue, with black fur on top of his head. He's got a pair of blue eyes, and he's a little shorter than the first human was. He's smiling at me, which makes him look a little less scary.

"D-did you help me?" After a while of silence, I can ask him what I wanted to ask. Why was that so hard? "I guess. I did bring you here, and I did try to help you." He replies, which makes me lower my head. "T-thank you, human…!" I quickly say to him, and I hear him laugh a little.

"There's no need to thank me, kiddo. I was just doing what was right." He tells me, making my eyes open in shock. He thought that helping me… was right? He's not like those other humans at all! "Now, do your legs feel itchy?" He asks me, getting me to stop and think. Suddenly, I feel something from my back legs that are covered in white. It's so itchy…!

"I'll take that as a yes, then. Yeah, that's a natural thing. And this nice person here can help you with that, so just relax and let her take them off. That's all she wanted to do, so that she can check up on your injuries." He tells me, which makes me confused.

"Um, what are in… in-jer-rees?" I ask him as I try to repeat what he said, which gets him to make a worried face. "Well, they're those things on you that hurt. If they hurt badly, there's gonna be red stuff coming out." He says after a bit if waiting, which makes me confused. Are they like owies?

"Well, I can't really tell unless you let me see your legs. Besides, they can't feel too good." He speaks up after a bit, as I feel the annoying itchiness come back quickly. "My legs feel itchy." I tell him, getting him to nod as he listens to me.

"Yeah, they're not that great. Alright, now let me come close so I can take 'em off. Sound good?" He says, which makes me scared. "W-will it hurt?" I waste no time in asking him, as I can already feel myself shaking again.

"It might, but not as much as when you got hurt before. Trust me, I'll make this hurt as little as I can." He tells me, getting me to nod and shut my eyes tight. I can't look! They're whispering something as I feel the itchiness fade, but I can't tell what they're taking about.

"I-is it off yet?" I ask, my voice once again stopping in my throat before I can say it out loud. "Yeah, it is. You did good, kiddo." I slowly crack open my eyes after he praises me, and I see him smiling at me. His smile this time isn't the same as before, though. It's more warm, and it makes me feel a bit better.

"Here, for you." He speaks up, his hand reaching out to me. "Eep!" I cry out, shutting my eyes in fear as he does that. Is he going to try and hurt me now? I get ready for him to hurt me, but he doesn't. When I open my eyes again, I see him put a berry in front of me. It looks so good…!

"For me?" I ask him, as he nods. "Yeah, of course. You deserve it, for being so brave." He tells me, getting me to look at the fruit in his hand. Is it poisoned? I take a sniff at it, and I don't smell anything strange. It just smells so good, and I start eating before I know it.

"Mmm…!" The juices from inside it tastes so sweet, and the berry is so nice to chew! It also tastes like something else too, but it also tastes nice with the sweet juices! It tastes so good! As I finish chewing and swallow the berry, I hear the human chuckle.

"Well, she looks happy." He says, getting me to look at him while chewing. "All thanks to your generosity. I see that she's in good hands now. Just make sure she takes one of these a day, and she should end up just fine in a few days." The other human says, and gives him some small white things.

"Sure thing, Doc. Thanks again for your help." He thanks her, which makes her shake her head.. "No, thank you. If you hadn't helped her when you did, she might not have lived to see another day. Thanks, Jay." She replies, and she leaves quickly.

"Heh. It was good, right?" He turns to ask me, and I nod. "Thank you!" I quickly tell him, before I notice something else. Something smells sweet, but where is it? There! An entire pile of berries, right next to where I am!

"U-um, could I..." I try to ask the human, to see if I could have any. As I start asking however, my stomach starts to make noises. "Uuu…!" I squeak, as I look down and feel my face getting hotter. As I do so, I hear him laugh a little. This is so embarrassing!

"You want the rest of 'em, right? Here ya go." He puts the food in front of me as he says that, which shocks me. He's going to let me eat all of it? Yay! "Thank you, nice human!" I smile, getting him to smile back. He isn't like the other humans at all! He's so nice, and he doesn't want to hurt me!

"My name's Jay, so just call me that. Human is just too annoying to say, and I might not know you're talking to me if you call me that." He says, and I nod. "Mm hmm!" I tell him that I understand, hearing him chuckle as I say so with my mouth full.

"Oh, yeah. You have a name, kiddo? I really don't like calling you Deerling all the time, and I'm already calling someone else kiddo." He suddenly says as I eat, to which I look to him. Ah, right! He doesn't know my name! I tell him, but I forget that I can't really speak at the moment.

"Mm nmm mm mm mm." Is what I do end up saying, and that makes him laugh. "Uh, what? With your mouth shut, it makes it hard to get what you're trying to say." He tells me, as I realize I still have food in my mouth. So, I swallow before telling him again.

[Jay]

"My name is April." Ah, so that's her name. "Well, it's nice to meet ya April." I tell her, smiling her way as she returns to eating her food. However, the door to the room is kicked open as a red and white blur rushes over to where I am. More impressively though, the door has been kicked off it's hinges.

"Brother! I have found you!" A very familiar voice cries out, as my face is muffled by the red softness of a hand-knitted scarf. In the background, I catch April sounding off a surprised yelp that is almost immediately followed by a rustling of the sheets.

"Thank goodness you're okay!" Yupia cries, burying my face in her chest and scarf as she hugs me as tightly as she can. "Good to see ya too, sis. How'd ya find me?" I can't help but laugh, smiling into her scarf a little happier than I usually do.

"Well, I found your Pokemon first. Chell waved to me, and she told me that you had left to get them more food. Then, I ran into Nurse Joy, and she told me that you had come here." She explains with a serious look, all while hugging me. It takes a good minute of a damn near spine breaking hug, but she soon lets me go.

"Heya, sis. What's up?" I ask the white haired teenager, who places a hand on my shoulder as she looks at me with concern. "Once I heard her talk about your injury, I had to check up on you! Are you sure you're supposed to be walking right now? You did get shot, after all." She frowns at me, to which I sigh with a wry grin and poke her forehead.

"No need to worry, Yu. I'm all good, and I've been given clearance by the nurse's assistants. There aren't even any holes in my chest anymore, see?" I tell her, lifting my hoodie and shirt so she could see that I wasn't lying. After a few seconds of close scrutinizing, I decide to lighten the mood.

"Not as hole-y as you'd expect, right sis? Heh, shots fired." I joke, making my sister freeze in her movements as she processes the double pun. However, she quickly gets it and takes to glaring my way. Yup, definitely her. No one else makes the same hilarious faces she does.

"Jay, enough of those terrible puns of yours!" She groans, crossing her arms to express her distaste. "Welp, you're right there. My puns really are tear-ible." I tell her as I pull out a piece of paper from my pocket with the word 'pun' on it, quickly tearing it up. "JAY!" Yupia screams, before she sighs in defeat.

"Alright, at least you're telling the truth. To be honest, I thought you would have just stayed in your hospital bed." She speaks up, getting me to laugh aloud as she admits that fact. "Well, I don't blame ya. In fact, I'm feeling like sleeping soon." I grin cheekily, to which Yupia groans and shakes her head.

"Honestly, Brother. It's only eight in the evening, so stop being so lazy for once and do something productive! And puns don't count!" My sister urges me, before she gets an idea of her own. "Oh, I know! As soon as I finish my dinner, I shall challenge you to a Pokemon battle! This way, you'll have to do something!" She proclaims, to which I nod.

"That's a great idea, sis. Man, you're so cool." I grin her way, getting her to put her hands on her hips in a prideful manner. "But of course! I am very cool and great, after all." She proclaims, making me chuckle as I remember April. Looking over to her, I see a lump that's shaking on the bed.

"And who is that?" Yupia asks me, having caught on to what I was looking at. She's currently inspecting the shivering blanket with a suspicious look, a hand to her chin. "That's April. She's a shy Deerling, so don't be offended that she's hiding from ya." I explain, before poking the Deerling's head.

"Eep! P-please don't h-hurt me!" April squeaks, her voice now stuttering really heavily as she tries to talk. "Don't worry, April. This human isn't bad, and she won't try to hurt you either. She's Yupia, and she's my really cool sister." I assure the Deerling, who finally gathers the courage to take a peek.

"Hello, little Deerling! My name is Yupia, and I am very pleased to meet you!" My sister beams as she talks in her boisterous and loud voice, which would have a good impression on most people. Well, not April though. She yelps in surprise due to her loud voice, her head quickly darting back under the covers in fear.

"Sis, I think you scared her." I sigh, shaking my head with a wry grin. "Oh, no! I'm so sorry, April!" Yupia gasps, looking quite guilty as she stares at the lump under the blanket. "It's okay, April. She didn't mean to talk so loudly, so try and forgive her." I gently tell the Season Pokemon, who still remains within the confines of the blanket.

"...O-okay." April finally replies, mustering the courage to come out of the blanket. However, she does still shy away when Yupia tries to come closer. Seeing the disappointment on my sister's face, I tap her shoulder. "It's alright, sis. She'll warm up to you eventually. Just keep your voice down around her, eh?" I suggest, getting the scarf wearing young lady to stand up with a renewed smile.

"But of course! The Deerling will realize what a cool friend I am soon enough!" She grins triumphantly, getting me to chuckle. "That's the spirit." I throw her a thumbs up, patting the Deerling on the head. She flinches a bit a the gesture, but relaxes once she realizes I mean her no harm.

"April, we'll be leaving to get some food. Wanna come?" I ask the Grass Type, who immediately perks up at the mention of food. "Yes, please!" She quickly says, to which I stand up. "Great! Now, come on guys. I kinda left my team at their table, and they're waiting on me to get their food." I sheepishly grin, picking up the two plates of food I had left on the bedside table.

"Can you walk?" I ask April, who tries to test out her legs by standing up. However, she does yelp in pain once she starts using her hind legs to support her body. "Yu, hold these for me." I tell Yupia, handing her my plates of food. Now with my hands free, I turn to April.

"You look like you're having trouble with your legs. Here, I'll lift ya there." I offer, holding out my hand. "...Thank you." April whispers after a moment of silence, letting me reach under her and hoist her into my arms. "Let's make like a tree and leaf, shall we?" I grin cheekily, already knowing how my sister was going to react to this. "JAY!" Yupia yells, not amused in the slightest. Or so she would claim, if her smile wasn't there.

 **Author's Note:**

 **HOLY SHIT! He's back, ladies and gents! With his longest chapter yet, no less! Did all of y'all miss me? Seriously though, sorry to keep all of you awesome people waiting. I had so much stuff to do, and I didn't even get to rewrite all that much! Only chapter 1 has been written anew, and it's annoying as all hell! I've been overthinking things too much, so I'll just paste the rewritten chapters as they come. Again, sorry for keeping everyone waiting for so long, and I can't really tell you when the next chapter comes out. But one thing's certain: I'm still here, and I will try my hardest to stay here. Until we meet again, stay awesome and enjoy the rest of your days!**

 **Lots of thanks,**

 **Roccer**

 **List of Pokemon:**

 **-Chell (Dewott)**

 **-Nesia (Servine)**

 **-Alita (Unfezant)**

 **-Katrina (Liepard)**

 **-Lily (Liligant)**

 **-Dani (Whimsicott)**

 **-Cleo (Flaafy)**

 **-Nova (Volcarona)**

 **-Leah (Lucario)**

 **-Safia (Zoroark)**

 **-Taylor (Sewaddle)**

 **-Belladonna (Venipede)**


End file.
